The Dark Jester II
by samuraistorm
Summary: Its been three months since the events of 'The Dark Jester'. An imposter of Saji is on the loose and Tai is in trouble. He'll need a partner to help him clear his name and eliminate the fake.
1. Teaser Trailer

**A note to any readers. If you haven't read the first Part, please do so, otherwise you will not understand the sequel.

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**'Trailer' 2**

Odaiba is dark. Niightime consumes the city as the streetlights illuminate the streets. From the top of the buildings, a caped figure stands on the edge, looking over the whole block. His face is hidden under his hat, but as he lifts his head up, the white and black mask of Saji reveals himself.

* * *

Davis is sitting next to Kari on the bus as she falls asleep on his shoulder.

"I'm gonna tell Kari how I feel about her." He says.

"A relationship doesn't always turn out the way you want." Tai replies, "There's always gonna be rejection at the start."

The scene changes to Tai talking with Davis at a coffeeshop.

"Can you handle the rejection if it comes?" Tai asks.

"Yeah, I think I can." Davis replies, "But I don't expect it on happening."

* * *

The scenes goes to Odaiba at night. Sora is walking home alone. As she turns a corner, a caped figure swoops down and the two disappear, with only the sound of Sora's muffled scream.

At the police station, Matt is sitting in an office with the cheif inspector.

"We've found some evidence regarding the kidnapping." The police says.

He shows Matt a picture of the culprit responsible for Sora's disappearance. The picture shows to be Saji.

"This is the one who's responsible." The officer says.

"We lost track of them when they disappeared into an alleyway." The police says, "Most of our forces were after another criminal."

The scene changes to the man at the area of the birth of his powers. He is in a shut down factory and the place is filled with radioactive gas. As he enters, his body slowly begins to fade into smoke. Outside the factory, the smoke takes form and the man is seen.

**Everybody has a choice.**

"This bastard kidnapped my girlfriend!" Matt exclaimed, "And he's still out there!"

**To face the darkness.**

* * *

"When will you give up Davis?" Kari asks him. She gives him a straight face, showing him that she was serious of what she is saying, "I'm not intersted. And I don't ever plan to."

She leaves as Davis is left standing there, with a hurt look on his face.

**Or be consumed by it.**

Davis is lying on the ground, unconscious as a black cape slowly comes to life and crawls up his arm.

"You have to know the difference between justice and revenge." Tai says.

The cape continues to cover his body, starting with the arm that it first came in contact with. it reaches to his body and continues to reach down to his waist.

"The two seem like the same, but revenge can control us unknowingly."

The black cape covers his entire legs, leaving only his face. The cape takes form over his body, hugging the body, leaving a muscular fit to the body. The cape begins to reach up to his neck.

"And the next thing you know, you're the very thing you fight against."

The cape expands over his head and wraps around him.

* * *

Davis finds himself standing on the top of a flagpole at the top of a building.

"What is this?" Davis looks at his body, covered by the black cape, "How did this get on me?"

Davis jumps off the flagpole. The cape forms devil wings and he begins to glide across the sky.

"The power, it feels good." Davis says to himself, "I've never felt so good."

The wings form back into a cape and he falls, landing, feetfirst, on the building he was reaching to. He turns around, revealing his large blood-red eyes.

* * *

"You think I'm wimpy now?" Davis asks as he stands over TK.

"Please stop." TK begs as he is on the ground, bleeding.

* * *

Davis and TK are at the hospital looking at Kari as she is in bed.

"What happened to her?" TK asks the police officer.

"It seems that this clown's partner is responsible for her 'accident'." The police answers.

* * *

The 'smoke-man' is in an alleyway and Davis appears in his black cape costume. The bloodred eyes give the man a scare.

"You remember what you did to a girl?" Davis asked, "You remember the crime you commited?"

"Why do you care?!" The man asks, "What does it matter to you anyway?!"

"Everything!" The cape forms over Davis' arms and creates a sword for each arm.

* * *

Davis glides across the night sky as he looks down on the streets with his red eyes.

"You've wanted to be with me for so long." Kari says with a hurt tone, "Now, all of a sudden, you're not interested in me. You really want me out of your life?"

"Its not easy for me to explain." Davis replies, "But you have to understand why I want things like this."

* * *

Saji is thrown towards a wall of a building with a black suited figure hovering in front of him. The face of the figure reveals to be Matt.

"You brought this upon yourself Tai." He says, "You knew this would come."

Saji runs away from the winged demon.

"I didn't do it!" Saji yells, "I didn't kidnap her!"

* * *

"What's happened to you?" Kari asked Davis, "You've changed."

Davis, in his black costume, stands on the roof of a building, holding a criminal by his throat and hanging him over the edge.

"I _am_ different." Davis says to himself. He looks at his black caped hands, "What have I done."

Davis is in an abandoned building. Ripping the black cape off of his face, the cape begins to shrivel.

* * *

"You have to learn to let things go." Tai said, "I learned that the hard way and that made me what I am now."

"I'm in control of you!" Davis yells at the living cape, "You can't survive without me!"

Davis stands before the 'smoke-man' and he prepares to fight him. His eyes glow the red color.

"This is no longer about revenge." Davis says, "Its justice."

He closes his red eyes and when he opens them up, he opens them with green eyes.

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity

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As you all can guess, I based this trailer off of the newest Spiderman 3 trailer. The first chapter will be up soon.**


	2. Since Then

**Here it is folks. The sequel for your all time favourite story. Before you proceed to read this, if you haven't read the first part, I suggest you do.**

**Without further distractions, I present you with PART II.**

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**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter 1**

**Since Then**

Since then...

Its not everyday you hear that two-worded phrase out of the blue. It needs a purpose, it needs a meaning. 'Since then' requires that whoever said it explains what happened in the past before he or she says 'since then'. Ussually, it has to do with some special event that changed that person's life, but rarely something common. That's how this story will start.

My name is Taichi Kamiya, and I am not normal.

* * *

The past was the life I had before I aquired the life you see me live. In the past, I loved soccer, hanging out with friends, and relaxing. That was in the past. 

Ever since the return of our old nemesis, Apocalymon, I had to change the way I lived and create a new life; a life where justice would have to be taken into my own matters, a life where the law doesn't apply to me, the life of a vigilante. With such great changes came great losses.

Sora. Wow, you could not see anything more beautiful than her. She's been my best friend ever since I was around 5. We would always spend time together, playing soccer, or simply hanging out. Though it never occured to us that we could have been in love, I knew that we were, I was just too late to tell her how I felt. She's with my best friend now, Matt. As much as I despise the fact that she chose him over me, I can't bring it to myself to hurt either of them. Matt's been my best friend, second to Sora, and she's the woman I love. If I had to live a life of depression to make her happy, I would've done it, and so I did. But now, I know we can never be together. I say that for two reasons.

**One:** I previously said that I'm not normal. Well, I wasn't shitting you. My name is Taichi Kamiya, but that's the name my friends know me as. I'm also the one that they often see in the night sky. I'm also Saji, The Dark Jester. The clown that punishs those you bring harm to others. With great power, comes great responsibilities. That quote's been used many times, and its always right. My powers must be used for responsibly. The main responsibility I have is to not be distracted when I do what I do as Saji. If I were to be with Sora, she would be the prime target of my enemies if they knew who I was. Because of that, I know we would never be.

**Two:** After a certain event, I lost interest in wanting her. The night of which Apocalymon was to die by my hands, a trap was set up by him, and Sora took part in it, luring me into the trap and seducing me as the trap was pulled. Siding with the enemy requires great punishment from the Dark Jester, but compassion is something my human side still has. My compassion for her let her live, but she would have to live a life in fear and untrusting security. My punishment to her is this; From here on forth, I will not be protecting her.

**Since then**,. Ah, there we go. 'Since then'. This is how that pgrase is to be used. I had just finished explaining what happened to me in the past and now, I explain what is happening in the present.

**Since then**, I've continued to pursue crime during the night and punishing those who oppose _my_ law. Though Sora and Matt know about my secret, I know they would keep it a secret, unless death is what they desire. If they were to tell the people who I am, not only would I be in trouble, but my enemies would use that to their advantage, by harming those that I care for and love.

Nothing new has happened since that unfortunate night. Crime happens, I stop it. People kill other people, I kill the killers to stop them. A strange method you may say, but its the most effective.

* * *

**_The score is now 3-3. With less than a minute left on the clock, can either team make a goal before they make it a tie?_**

The soccer field would be one of the only places where you would hear that from a loud speaker. The soccer field was packed with people, cheering on their school team. The field was emptied, now that it was on time-out. One of the teams had red and white clad uniforms on and the other team had green and black. Familiar faces were on both teams, not were they recognizable by some people, the two knew eachother very well.

Davis Motamiya, the captian of his highschool soccer team and the star of the team. Never in his life, has he played a game without making one successful goal on the opposing net, and never has he been on the bench for a replacement. He brought his team this far into the **Odiaba Region Highschool Soccer Tournament(ORHST)** starting from low seed and bringing them up to the finals.

Ken Ichijouji, the captian of his own highschool soccer team, the Tamachi Tigers. During his Digimon Emperor days, he was the best highschool soccer player in the city and possibly in the country. Due to the unfortunate fact that the loss of his Digimon Emperor status made him lose much of his soccer talents, he had to 're-earn' his position as the team captian and managed to pull it off in a matter of weeks. His team was highly expected to make it to the finals with no trouble and they were right.

The two teams made their way back to the field and prepared to finish up the match. The two captians came to the center of the field to start the kickoff. In the bleachers, all of Davis' and Ken's friends were there to see the game. Kari and TK were sitting together, while Tai at as far away from Sora and Matt, but close enough to be with the group.

"This is intense." Kari said, "Both of them are equal in talents."

"Yeah, I know." TK said, who was sitting next to her on the benches, "This is gonna be a very surprising ending."

Davis and Ken came face to face at the center of the field. The referee stood between the two with his whistle in his hand. "Alright boys, lets see a clean finish for this game."

The two walked closer to eachother and shook hands.

"You played good Davis." Ken said with a smile, "I'm impressed."

"Thanks." Davis smiled back, "You're doing good yourself."

At the sound of the whistle, the game resumed. Davis kicked the ball and dribbled it down the field towards the goal. Ken followed closely behind him and prepared for a trip. As Ken dived leg first, to intercept the ball, Davis jumped up, with the ball. Davis quickly turned around and performed a bicycle kick for the goal, but as he prepared to make the kick, he saw a leg coming right at his face. The impact of the leg to his face forced him down to the grass and the ball was left bouncing out of the boundary line. Davis laid on the grassy surface, holding his face in pain.

"Oh my god." Kari got up from her seat when she saw that Davis wasn't getting up, "This isn't good."

"Foul on 03 green!" The referee called, "Penalty shot for 01 red, Motamiya!"

Davis slowly got to his feet and held his head back, preventing the blood from his nose from dripping down. His teammates were gathered around him to see how major the damage was, even Ken came over to see how he was.

"You alright Davis?" Ken asked.

"I'll be fine." Davis replied.

The referee walked up to Davis, "There's no time left on the clock and you are given one penalty shot."

"Got it." Davis replied, "Someone get me a nose plug."

After a few extra minutes of getting his bleeding nose looked at and tended to, Davis made his way for the penalty kick. The kick that would determine the outcome of the game. This goal will determine whether or not his team wins. He stood with the ball inches away from his feet and the goal a few feet away from him. The goalie stood prepared, ready to jump anywhere the ball was going to go. This was the final moment. Davis backed away from the ball slowly, preparing for the kick. He breathed deeply.

From the crowd, everyone became quiet for the penalty kick. Kari held onto TK's hand tightly as she waited for the outcome of the game. Tai looked at Davis with hope, hope that the goal would make it in. From the benches of the Tamachi Tigers, Ken looked in anxiousness.

Davis ran towards the ball. He swung his right leg back and swung it back forward, making contact with the ball, but instead of kciking it and sending it towards the goal, his right foot skimmed off the surface of the ball. Davis' body began to fall backwards. It looked as if he was going to fall.

"Oh shit." Matt muttered as he saw Davis falling backwards.

Davis had no look of panic in his eyes. As he fell back, he thrusted both his legs and that forced him to flip and land back on his left foot. Right when he made contact with the grass, he swung his right leg and kicked the ball towards the goal. The goalie didn't have time to recover from seeing Davis pull a fake shot and wasn't able to stop the ball from going into the net.

"That's Game!" The referee yelled, "The Daigon Dragons win the tournament!"

Davis jumped up and thrusted his right arm into the air in victory. He just won the tournament for his school team. He finally brought a trophy back to their school. People from the crowd came running to the field to join in on the celebration. The team hoisted Davis up and paraded him across the field to show off their captian and soccer star. As they brought him back onto solid ground, Ken came up to him.

"Congrats Davis." Ken smiled, "You played a great game."

"Thanks Ken." Davis smiled back, "You did great yourself. You were really good."

"I may have been." Ken replied, "But today, you were better. I'll see you after your team party."

"Alright then." Davis said.

Ken left the crowd, joining his team, as they headed towards their bus, haning their head down in shame. Ken was the only one who didn't seem to be upset about the loss. He got on the bus and looked back as the soccer field was still filled with people.

As Davis was being crowded by his fans, he was thrusted from behind by a body and had just wrapped their arms around him. He looked over his shoulder and sniffed in a familiar scent from the hair. _Kari_.

"Congradulations Davis." Kari smiled as she still hugged him, "You did awesome."

"That was most amazing trick you pulled for the penalty shot." TK said, "You never told any of us you could do that."

"Ah, I wanted to surprise you all." Davis smiled. He was enjoying the time with his friends, now that they were all highschool seniors, they had alot of school work to worry about, but neither of them were too busy to see Davis' games. "You guys wanna come to the party?"

"That'd be great." TK said, "I'll go ask the others."

"What about you Kari?" Davis asked.

"I'd love to." Kari replied and smiled, "It better not conflict with my curfew."

"Why would I ask you to do something that'll get you in trouble?" Davis smiled back.

It was around this time that people were heading to the parking lot, ready to head home, or attend the victory party. Davis walked Kari to her car as everyone else got to their own.

"I'm still amazed at the fact you got such an awesome car." Davis said as he admired the sleek look of Kari's convertible.

"I have my ways with my parents." Kari giggled, "I'm gonna head home to change. I'll see you at the party."

"Cool then." Davis said, "Seeya then."

"Bye Davis." Kari gave Davis a small kiss to his cheek, before going into her car, "Great game Davis."

Davis simply stood there, shocked about what just happened. He had finally recieved a kiss from Kari. It wasn't on the lips, but it was still a kiss. As Kari drove out of the parking lot, Davis simply looked on as her car turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

_Does she like me now?_ Davis asked himself.

This feeling was something he never felt for some time. The kiss she gave him sparked up a desire; he wanted to take that moment back and embrace her and kiss her back. This feeling began to fill Davis with a great joyous thought.

"Hey Davis." Davis turned around and saw Tai standing behind him, "You need a ride?"

"Uhh, yeah sure. That'll be great." Davis smiled, "But um...can we talk about some things before you take me home?"

"Sure." Tai said, "Let's go."

"By the way, I thought Kari had the car." Davis said.

"I took my parent's." Tai replied, "They're in Korea for their anniversary and they took a cab to the airport."

* * *

The two went to a coffeehouse to discuss what Davis wanted to talk about. The car was parked just outside of the entrance and they were seated right by the windows.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Tai asked.

Before Davis could answer, a waitress came up to the two. She looked to be around Davis' age. "Can I get you two anything?"

"I'll have a french vanilla coffee." Tai said.

"I'll have the same." Davis said.

"Great, I'll to it." She wrote down the two orders and headed to the back of the counter.

"She's hot." Tai said, "You should talk to her."

"Yeah, see that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Davis said, "It's a girl-based issue."

"You mean Kari?" Tai asked, "Let me guess, you finally found out that the two decided to end their relationship?"

"Yeah." Davis answered, looking down on the table, "I still don't know why, but I now know it happened."

"Well, she came to me wanting my advice on what to do about it." Tai explained, "She said that she's known TK for too long to be in a relationship with him. She only saw him as a close friend and wanted to know what I thought about it."

"Well, I think she's thinking about me now." Davis said, "After the game, I walked her to her car. Before leaving she kissed me on the cheek and said good-bye."

"Hmm." Tai thought about what Davis had just told him, "Well, its not like Kari to simply give a peck to any of her friends. I guess she could be interested."

"Yeah, which is why I wanted to tell you this." Davis took a deep breath and spilled it out, "I'm gonna tell Kari how I feel about her."

Tai was somewhat surprised about what Davis said, but he knew it would come up eventually. He knew that Davis had a secret crush for Kari from the very start. It would've been nice to see the two together, but he had his doubts of what could happen.

"I don't know Davis." Tai replied, "I don't think you should do that so quickly."

"Why?" Davis asked.

"A relationship doesn't always turn out the way you want." Tai replied, "There's always gonna be rejection at the start. She may turn you down. Can you handle the rejection if it comes?"

"Yeah, I think I can." Davis replied, "But I don't expect it on happening."

"For all we know, she probably took pity on you from that kick to the face." Tai jokingly snickered.

"Shut up man." Davis lightly punched Tai on the shoulder, "I still can't belive that guy did that to me. I really want to kill him."

"Whoa, you thinking about revenge?" Tai asked, "That sounded a little harsh."

"It's my own version of justice." Davis replied, "Punish the ones who commit the 'Many of Davis' Crimes'."

"You have to know the difference between justice and revenge." Tai said, "The two seem like the same, but revenge can control us unknowingly."

"That is true." Davis replied.

Tai began to go deep into thought. He began to look over his actions as his alter ego. Constant images of hisactions began to flash into his brain. The killing, he began to question his methods. He then saw a flash image of Apocalymon. "And the next thing you know, you're the very thing you fight against."

"Why are you telling me this?" Davis asked, "Its not like I'm gonna be the new superhero of Odaiba. We already have that Dark Jester doing the job."

"Yeah, I know." Tai replied, monotonely.

"Boy, how much I would give to see him face to face." Davis said to himself with a smile.

_You have no idea._ Tai smiled.

* * *

**That's the first chapter. I'm so excited about this. This is the first time I released a sequel to one of my stories. I thank everyone who sent replies to my stories. They all continued to push me into completeing the next chapter as soon as possible and for that I thank you all, once again.**


	3. The Party

**Sorry to keep you all waiting, but school's a killer. Here's the next chapter. I do not own the song 'Jack's Lament' from The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the lyrics I put in were from me.

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**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter 2**

**The Party**

Loud music, drinks, food, and hundreds of people chattering. What more can a party have? Celebrating the victory against the Tamachi Tigers, Davis' soccer team held a party at the school. Along with the team, they invited several of their friends to celebrate with them.

"Where is he?" Yolei asked, "Of all events, Davis has to be late for this?"

"He'll show up." TK said, "He always does, regardless of being late."

* * *

Outside the school, a car pulled up the main entrance of the gym. Davis got out of the car and closed the door behind him. 

"Thanks for the ride Tai." Davis said before goin into the gym.

Tai drove off from the school and onto the main road. As he drove towards home, he passed by several police cars that were parked outside a bank, sirens on. As Tai slowly passed them, he managed to hear what the issue was.

"The criminals are still there. The hostages are alive, but their gonna get killed if we don't meet their demands." He heard from one of the officers.

Tai simply grinned as he parked his car by the curb a few feet away from the scene. He reached over to the back seat and grabbed a fairly large bag and left the car with it. Locking the door, he ran towards the crime scene, but first dashed into the nearby alley. He unzipped the dufflebag and when he parted the zipper, the white and black face of the Nightmare Clown was there.

**

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**"Hey guys." Davis walked into the gym, being blasted by the loud music and hot air from people's breathing. 

"There you are." Yolei said, "I almost thought you wouldn't even show up for your own party."

"When have I ever not show up to special occasions?" Davis asked.

"Well..." Before Ken could speak, Davis interupted him.

"The one with the New Year's party doesn't count." Davis quickly said, "Yolei gave me the invitation at the last minute."

"Dammit." Ken muttered.

"What are we doing here?" TK asked, "Let's hit the dance floor."

"Wanna dance Davis?" Kari asked with a bright smile.

"Sure." Davis answered. This was like a dream come true, Kari was willingly asking Davis for a dance. No more pity dances out of lonliness, this was the real thing. Kari had finally asked Davis for a real dance. Kari grabbed onto Davis' hand and pulled him over to the dance floor. The two went to the center of the gym and danced to the upbeat music. As Kari swung her hips around in a very attractive manner, Davis had the urge to place his hands on her hips as she moved them. As if she read his mind, Kari reached over and wrapped her right arm around Davis. Davis reacted by wrapping his right arm over her waist and let her body come close to his. "Wow, never seen you dance like this before."

"You're never around to see." Kari smiled, "You're pretty good yourself."

From outside the gym, a car pulled over with a group of four friends. They each got out of the car once it was parked.

"Finally. We're here." One of them said, "Why couldn't you keep your uniform on, instead of going home to change?"

"Cause it was covered in blood." The other replied, "Davis' nosebleed was all over it, cause I had to help him clean it."

"Who cares. You did remember the booze right?" The other asked.

The first one reached into the back seat and pulled out two boxes of alcoholic drinks.

**

* * *

**"Where's our money?!" One of the terrorists yelled, "What kind of bank has no money?!" 

"Move In!" the sound of the police officer came, signalling for his troops to prepare for their strike against the terrorists.

"Shoot their asses down!" The terrorists pulled out their automatic rifles and began to fire away, aimlessly. The raging bullets fired and broke through the glass and walls, occasionally hitting the cops. With only several left, the survivors backed away, not wanting to face the same fate as their comrads.

"My, my, my. Such violence." A dark voice creeped into their ears.

"Who's there?" The terrorists asked.

"Oh come now, you must know perfectly well who I am." The voice creeped again.

"Its him, The Dark Jester." One of the terrorists began to tremble.

"Its only a matter of time before I strike." The voice said, "Are you ready for it?"

For what was at least a minute, it seemed longer. The terrorists waited impatiently for Saji to come out. With no sign of him, one of them lost it.

"AAAHHH! I can't take it anymore!" He ran out of the building, only to be met by a black cape with the clown's face.

"He's out there!"

Saji rose from the body of the fallen terrorist. He looked down at his first victim and looked over to the others. He reached for his back and pulled out two of the four black wrapped ninja swords that now replaced the six different swords from the past. "Prepare for your judgement."

* * *

"Ok remember, only give it to people who ask for it." one of the four late-comers said. 

"Got it." The four of them began to pour some of the alcoholic drinks into the punch, but made sure no one got some, "Save me a drink."

"Me too."

Two cups were filled with the drink and they were set down on the table where the four were. They paid no attention to it, due to that they had to make sure the drinks were hidden to avoid notice that it was alcoholic.

**

* * *

**"You thirsty?" Davis asked. The two had walked away from the dance floor to be away from the intense heat. 

"Yeah." Kari answered, "Let's get something."

The two walked over to the refreshment stand. There was a large lineup for drinks and the two were at the back. While waiting, Davis looked over and noticed that there was another table that had drinks. He grabbed Kari's hand and took her to the empty table.

"Where's the punch serving guy?" Davis asked. He saw that there were two cups filled with the drink among the empty ones. He took them both and gave one of them to Kari. "Cheers."

As Davis brought the plastic cup to his lips, he began to notice a small strange stench from the drink. He pulled his lips away from the cup and looked at the drink. It seemed to look normal. A blue raspberry punch drink is meant to look blue. He brought the cup to his nose and took a sniff at it. "Uh Kari, I think these drinks are a little..." Davis looked over to Kari, but realized that she was now pouring herself another cup from the large bowl, "spiked!" Judging as to how Kari was moving and how much of the spiked drink she had consumed, she was indeed drunk.

"This stuff is great." Kari said with a strangely formed smile, "You should try some."

"Uhh...I already did." Davis lied, as he hid his drink away from Kari, "Kari, I think your a little drunk."

"Of course not." Kari hiccupped a little, "I'm fine, just a little woozy from drinking so much punch."

For the next few minutes, Davis had to be with Kari as she walked around the gym, tripping on almost everything and saying 'hi' to people she never knew before and shaking their hands. The embarrassment was not much for Davis, he was just worried about her. What would Tai say about this? Would he blame Davis for not keeping an eye on her?

"Kari, I really think your drunk. This isn't like you." Davis said, "The Kari I know doesn't walk in a clumsy way."

Kari didn't say a word, she began to look down to her shoes. Did he say something offensive to her? "Oh god." That was all Kari said as she rushed through the people and out the gym. Davis ran after her, but lost sight of her as he made his way outside. He looked all over the place, but found no trace of her. When he turned to go back inside, giving up on searching, he heard the sound of retching from the nearby bush. He slowly walked over to the bush and found Kari lying on the grass, with her head in the bush.

"Sweet Jesus." Davis muttered. He picked up Kari and got her to rest her arm around his shoulder, "You alright?"

"Not really. "Kari said, right before burping, "I don't feel to good."

"You wanna go home?" Davis asked.

"That'll be nice." Kari answered, "My car's just over here."

"Not so fast." As Kari pulled out her car keys, Davis swiped them from her hands. "You're not driving in the condition your in. I don't care what you say about how sober you are, cause I know you're not."

"The how do we get home?" Kari asked.

"We're taking the bus." Davis said, "Unless you want a criminal record or get killed."

"Fine." Kari muttered, "Then what about my car?"

"I'll ask Yolei to bring it to your place." Davis replied, "She took the bus to get here. Just stay close to me."

Davis took a hold of Kari's hand and the two went back into the gym to find Yolei.

* * *

Saji stood over the bodies of his fallen victims. Blood filled the floors of where the bodies laid. As Saji looked over at them all, flashes of their death entered his mind. 

_"I'm gonna kill you!" One of the criminals aimed his gun at Saji._

_"Not so fast." Saji pulled out a shuriken form his gunmetal grey utility belt and threw it at the gunner. He fell to the floor when the star came in contact with his forehead._

_Saji looked over at the other remaining criminals. He reached for his hat and pulled out the purple feather that rested on the right side. He held the feather between his fingers like a pen and aimed it towards them._

_"Appearances can be deceiving." Saji said, "This feather is no exception."_

_Saji ran towards them and with the feather tip, he slashed at them all, cutting the skin on their faces and finishing them off with a piercing blow to their throat. One by one, they fell to the floor, dead from the impact._

Saji looked over at the doorway and saw that the police were about to enter. Behind them, he saw that the SWAT team was there too. Saji didn't hesitate; he snapped his fingers and a large cloud of smoke consumed him. When the smoke cleared, Saji was no where to be seen.

* * *

Davis and Kari both made their way outof the gym. They would have been out sooner, but Kari had another throw-up incident which landed on someone and Davis had to help clean the mess up. With Kari still unbalanced from the drink, Davis carried her on his back to the bus stop. Ignoring the comments of people that he passed by them, he continued to carry Kari down the street. As he came to the bus stop, the bus was there, about to take off. Davis ran as much as he could, without upsetting Kari's stomach and managed to get the bus to stop. The two got inside the and they sat down near the rear exit. 

"How you feeling Kari?" Davis asked.

"I'll be better soon." Kari said, "I'm really sorry for making you leave the party so early."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Davis replied softly, "This was more important."

Without a word, Kari closed her eyes and rested her head on Davis' shoulder. Davis simply smiled from this. He put his arm over Kari and held her closer to himself, stroking her cheek with his thumb as the bus drove off to thake them home. This was what Davis alwaysdreamed of, He waited for the day that he could touch Kari like this. With desire in him, he hoped that he could go further than this when he told Kari his true feelings for her, but he chose to save it for another time.

* * *

Saji stood at the roof of a building. Looking down on the streets and the cars. 

Its amazing. It hasn't even been a full year and already, crime rates have lowered because of Saji's presence. Not many thugs were out on the streets in the middle of the night causing trouble, unless they desired to be met by the cold metal blade of Saji.

* * *

My name is Saji. I've been Odaiba's protector for about 8 months. Throughout the course of my time, I acquired new changes to myself to better suit me. 

Starting from head to toe:

My hat remains the same; black stetson with a purple band around it. The only change I made to it was the feather. To show the might of the magician, the feather doubles as a sharp piercing tool. The feather itself is made of sharp thin metal strands that can scratch diamonds.

My mask is the one thing I never plan to change for it is where I recieve my hidden specialties.

My cape his changed to a more deceptive appearance. The right end of the cape comes over to the left side to further hide my body. My swords have been replaced with four ninja swords to better suit the art of stealth, deception, and agility. My shirt is changed from a black dresshirt, to a black tunic.

My boots still conceal the special blades at the sole for the sneak attacks.

Overall, concealment was the main change I made for myself, and it has improved my work dramatically.

* * *

Saji looked up at the moonlight as it flew over the city, illuminating the darkest corners of the city. Saji felt very relaxed by the darkness. 

_There are few who deny, at what I do I am the best,  
for my talents are renowned far and wide.  
When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night,  
I excel without ever even trying.  
With the slightest little effort of my Jester charms,  
I have see grown men give out a shriek.  
With the skill of deception and stealth and fear,  
I have swept the very bravest off their feet._

_And time after time, it's the same routine,  
Criminals see me and give out a scream.  
For I am Saji! The Nightmare Clown.  
Will these fools ever learn of my presence in this town?_

_Oh somewhere deep inside of my soul,  
An emptiness begins to grow.  
Unknown of what it desires from me,  
tormenting me, with what I can't see._

_Yet..._

_I'm a master of fright and the Jester of Night,  
and I scare fools out of their skin.  
Throughout my hometown, I make no trace of sound.  
Deceiving criminals and kill them within._

_And since a clown is what I am, I make jokes with what I can,  
For my enemies need manipulation.  
__No animal or man, can scream loud as they can,  
until they take my presence in consideration._

_But who in this world would ever understand,  
that the Jester with the suspicious grin on his face,  
grows tired of the crime. They never, ever learn.  
Do they wish to be caught, to be killed, to burn?_

Saji slowly walked towards the edge of the building. He looked down upon the people that were there. No doubt that they all must have done some sort of crime at least once, but what can he do about it? He hasn't seen it commited yet. He then slowly turned around to look back.

_Oh, an empty place inside of me,  
shows something i cannot see.  
The crime just grow, no matter hard,  
I try to stop it, no matter how far._

With that, he fell back slowly, he felt his feet lose contact with the concrete surface of the rooftop. He fell down to the ground below, but before making contact with the surface, Tai heard the sound of Saji in his head.

_Its not time yet._

His cape then came alive, warpping itself around Saji, forming a black coccoon-like object. As the coccoon hit the concrete sidewalk, the caped figure disappeared into the ground. People who had witnessed this all looked shocked at what they had just seen.

* * *

Tai opened his eyes. He found himself back on the rooftop, looking down on the street below. He had his mask in his gloved hand. 

_Its not time yet._

The words echoed in his mind. No, it wasn't time for Saji to die yet. He put the mask back on and jumped off the rooftop. As he was in midair, he fired a cable from his wrist and swung himself to the building in front of him, landing on the roof.

* * *

**That concludes this chapter.**

**For those of you who are a little confused of what just happened;**

**Tai is getting sick of the fact that what he does isn't enough to stop the crime in Odaiba(thus leading him to having a partner)**

**The amount of death he brought upon the criminals is beginning to haunt him. He now visualizes his actions after he performed them.**

**Deep inside him, he seems to have a desire for something, but can't understand what it is and it torments him.**

**Hope you like it, I'll have the next chapter up soon. It'll bring the turning point of Davis' actions and what he does to become what I plan for him to become. I'll also introduce the 'Smoke-man' and how he becomes the 'Smoke-man' next chapter.**

**Please Review.**


	4. The Dark Inside Darkness

**Its about time for me to ntroduce the coming of our 'Smoke-man'. So without further distractions, here's chapter three.

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**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter 3**

**The Dark Inside Darkness**

Nighttime was still looming around every corner of Odaiba. While a party that was celebrating a soccer victory was happening at a school gym, Saji was contemplating on his actions somewhere further off in the city. But over all this, a new event has occured. While Saji was successful in eliminating the criminals in the bank heist, one of them made it out alive, undetected by The Dark Jester.

* * *

Our loose criminal was running down the alleyway, avoiding being seen under the streetlights. It was bad enough that Saji had killed his comrades, but now the police are hot on his trail. He ran through the shadows, until he made it to what was assumed to be his car. He opened the door and slammed it shut. With the sound of sirens at a distance, he quickly popped the panal from under the steering wheel and began to fidget around with the wires. Upon getting the proper connection and the motor started running, the police had arrived on scene. 

"Shit." He stepped on the gas pedal and drove off, away from the police. Trying to get on the road, he crashed into several objects on the way.

He steered the car around the roads, cutting corners to hopefully get further away from the police and in all possibility, lose them. Theroad he was on currently led him to a road that had no intersections for some time. It was the open road and hope seemedto bloom for him. He quickly looked back and saw that there were no lights of blue and red behind him. He gave a small grin, believing that he had made it out alive, but as he looked back, he saw that there were police cars just ahead of him.

"Here he comes." The police said, "Spike strips are in place."

By the time he realized that there was a spike strip just ahead of him, his car was already popped by the sharp metal pins. His vehicle began to steer out of control and began to skid off the road. Of all the stupid things he could do at this situation, he chose to still step on the acceleration pedal. This forced him off the road and into the grass. Looking up ahead, he saw that there was a large metal fence with 'Keep Out' signs posted between each bar. His car broke through the fence as if it wasn't there to begin with. Bumping around from the unbalanced surface, he lost consciousness after hitting his head on the roof. Not too far away, there was a large factory that was about to be hit by the incoming car. When the car made impact, from inside, a tank of radioactive liquids was punctured. Cracks began to form on the tank.

"Get in there!" The police officers ordered, "Don't let him escape!"

The masked criminal woke up from his daze and got a recall on what had just happened. He saw that he trashed the car and it was no use to start it up again. He got out and the first instinct he had was to hide in the factory. He opened the nearest door and slammed it behind him. Taking a pole nearby, he placed it on the door in a way that prevent anybody from outside to open it. He looked around for any possible place to hide, but finding no luck in it.

While he looked around the empty factory, the punctured liquid tank began to leak out its contents. Sludge of green began to seep through the cracks of the metal tank and flowed down into the closest drain. As it traveled down below, it came in contact with the factory waste. As the green goop began to cover up the disgusting contents of what the workers left behind, it began to let off a steam of green smoke. The tank that had just released its contents was beginning to feel pressure from the force of the chemicals that were coming out. The cracks began to grow bigger and from a small leak and large spray came out. The spray reached to the electrical equipment of the factory and the metal was beginning to be eaten away by the radioactive liquid. sparks of fire began to form and the flames began to engulf the entire tank.

The masked criminal looked back and saw that a fire was growing and began to panic. "Oh shit!" As he tried to get himself out, the green gas from below seeped up and he found himself caught in the gas. Unable to prepare himself, he inhaled the contents and began to feel pain. He felt his body tear apart. He looked at his hands and saw that it began to break apart into smoke.

The police came closer to the factory, slowly in pace. From outside, the fires were clearly seen through the darkness of night. One of them looked closely and saw that there was flammable liquids in the factory.

"Oh no. Get out of here!" The police all knew what was to happen next. They all ran away from the location just in time to avoid the blast radius of the explosion. The entire factory was leveled and only rubble was left in its place.

From the remains of the factory, a small puff of grey smoke hovered over the burning site. It began to float off away from the ruins, and away from the police. When it was at a location far from anything, the smoke took shape of a human figure. The smoke took form of a circle with two arms, then two legs sproated out, then a head. When all the nessecary body parts wereformed the smoke formed into clothes and standing there was not a figure of smoke, but our masked criminal.

"What...happened...to me?"

* * *

The sun shined brightly over the city as teenagers were preparing for the end of their schoolday. 

While everyone was talking with eachother, making plans on what they were to do afterwards, or simply talking, Davis had his mind on Kari. She sat two seats in front of him in Chemistry class and the two often partners up for labs. Though Davis felt that they were getting closer, he didn't know what Kari was thinking.

_Should I tell her now?_ He asked himself, _Or should I wait it out._

While thinking over the idea of what to do, the bell rang, signalling the end of the day.

As Davs got up from his seat, he saw that Kari was already out the door. He dashed past his feelow classmates and ran down the hall to catch up with Kari. He ran outside, in hopes of finding her before she disappeared. He looked over to the parking lot and saw that Kari was just about to ghet in her car. Davis ran and jumped over a bush and made it to the lot just in time before Kari got in.

"Hey Kari!" Davis called out.

Kari looked over to see that Davis had called her, "Hey Davis."

"How are you feeling?" Davis asked, "Are you better?"

"Oh yeah." Kari answered, remembering what happened to her last night, "Thank you so much for helping me that night."

"Don't mention it." Davis said, "But um...that wasn't the real reason why I'm here."

"Then what is it?" Kari asked.

"Um...well...I was actually wondering if you were free tonight." Davis stuttered the words out, "I thought the two of us could go see a..."

"Davis, what are you doing?" Kari asked, stopping Davis from continuing.

"What do you mean?" Davis asked a question back.

"How many times do you have to do this?" Kari asked, "Just because you helped me home, took care of me for the night, you think I would date you in return?"

"I thought you took an interest in me." Davis said, "At the party, you never danced with me before. Well, not willingly."

"I was just being nice." Kari said, "You had a soccer victory, big deal. That doesn't mean I want to date you."

"But Kari..."

"No buts." Kari said with a stern voice. "When will you give up Davis?" Kari asked him. She gave him a straight face, showing him that she was serious of what she was saying, "I'm not intersted, and I don't ever plan to."

Davis was shocked by those words. Kari had just taken him to a level that brought down Davis hard. He felt like he was down at the bottom of a hole, to high to jump out of and to steep to climb up. He felt horrible inside.

"I gotta go." Kari got into her car and started the engine, "Think about what I said." Kari drove out of the parking lot and onto the road, heading home.

Davis simply stood there not able to move, or recover from what had just been said to him. He didn't even look over to Kari's car as it drove off, he simply stood there, as if he wasn't even alive.

* * *

Tai sat on his sofa. He looked at a blank TV screen, not caring that he was looking at nothing. As he closed his eyes, he could hear the sound of screaming. The screaming of those whom he had killed. 

After spending time in the dorms of his college, he realized that he needed to live somewhere close to both school and home, so he found a house that was suitable for it. The house was fairly large, but not too big. Tai was lucky to be able to afford such a big house with the amount of money he had. During his time in here, he spent every possible minute, creating an extra floor to the house, starting from a wall in the basement, he began to dig down. With some knowledge he had in architecture and with the help of Izzy, Tai was able to create a lair.

As Tai was being haunted by these distant screamings, tit was interupted by a knock on the door. Tai got up from his seat and answered it.

"Davis?"

"How can she say something like that to me?" Those were the first words that came out of his mouth.

"What's going on?" Tai asked, "Who's 'she'?"

"Kari rejected me. And she did it brutally." Davis answered, "How can she say that to me?"

"Well, I did mention that there would be rejection." Tai said, "You told me you would be able to handle it."

"I know I did." Davis was close to breaking down. He rememberd that he told Tai he could handle rejection, but the way Kari said it was one he didn't expect. He sat down on the sofa Tai previously sat on and had his hands over his face.

"Listen, I can't tell Kari that she should like you, its her choice." Tai said. He stood in front of Davis and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Try and see it as this; at least you two are still good friends. That's as good as most relationships can get with women."

Davis looked up at Tai and smiled softly. "Thanks Tai."

"Its what I'm here for." Tai replied, "Now I think You should be getting home before it gets too late."

"You mind if I crash at your place you the night?" Davis asked, "Its a Friday."

Tai paused for a few seconds before giving him an answer, "I don't see the harm." Tai smiled, "I'll get the guest room set up. Just make sure you don't destroy anything while I'm out."

"Where are you going?" Davis asked.

"I have some studying to do." Tai said, "I'll be back a little late."

Unknown to Davis, this was a lie. Tai's real intentions involved a certain white and black mask, carrying four swords and some explosives. Tai went upstairs, heading to the guest room to set it up for Davis' night. After several minutes of preparation, the room was ready.

Davis was fairly tired from the trip to Tai's place, so he went to bed right away when the time was 11:00 pm. Tai headed towards the basement. He came towards a large picture that had a ninja on the front. Tai reached up for its eyes and pressed them with his two fingers. The eyes began to glow and the picture slid up, revealing a passageway. He descended down the steps to the lower level of the house. Down below, there was a cave. The cave was clearly seen to have been man-made. Bars of steel were on the walls to support it ceiling. There were lights hanging on the ceiling, attached to large, thick chains. Tai reached for a fairly large switch that was next to the entryway that he had just come from and pulled it. The lights lit up and illuminated the cave with a dim, but satisfying brightness. On the other side of the cave, there was the large black wardrobe. Tai approuched the wardrobe and grabbed onto the knobs. He twisted them both and pulled the doors aside to reveal its contents. The smiling mask of Saji was hanging inside, with the large black cape covering the tunic, pants and boots. Tai grabbed them all and shut the wardrobe doors. With the clothes on, he approuched his next destination of equipment. His four ninja swords were on a wall mount, placed to form two 'X's. Saji grabbed them both and strapped them to his back, hiding the sheathe under the cape, only revealing the hilts. Saji then walked over to a metal desk and opened the large drawer from underneath. The gunmetal grey belt was inside. Saji strapped the belt on, and proceeded to get all the required tools for his night. He filled his compartments with shurikens and detonators. He clipped on the telescoping knives and loaded the belt with extra cable cartridges. Saji walked towards another pathway that was going the opposite direction of the path he came from. There was another swtich there and this too controled the lights.

From outside, about a block away from Tai's house, what seemed to look like a small power generator opened up to reveal the clown. Tai had used Izzy's help to create a secret passage into his 'lair', without drawing attention by going through his own front door. Izzy made a power generator box and placed it where the exit would be and secured it in place. The placement of the exit was put so that Tai could make a five minute walk to the city for his night out.

"Let's see, who's been causing trouble?" Saji said to himself.

As Saji walked down the sidewalk of the night-covered city, he heard the sound of a woman screaming. This forced Saji to run to where the scream came from. The scream came from the alley that was just around the corner of the block. Saji found that the victim, who was the one screaming, was now dead. He was too late to save her. Her clothes were ripped, torn by what appearedto be a knife. Her under underwear was pulled down to her ankles and coverd in the blood that came from her stomach.

"Rape, no doubt." Saji muttered.

Saji examined the area around him. He saw that there was a blood puddle left by the dead woman. He also noticed that there was a set of footprints that had the same blood on it.

The man proceeded to jump up to the metal ladder that was above him. After several tries to reach for it, he got a strong hold of it. He climbed up the ladder and made his way up the stairs of the metal framed balcony. Saji took out several more shurikens and threw them at the man, but the feance prevented the stars from hitting its target. The man came up to his desired level and slid open the window that was in front of him. He closed the window behind him and locked it shut before running down the hall of the dark apartment. As he ran, his face was met by a dark purple gloved fist. The killer fell to the floor and standing above him was The Dark Jester.

"Unfortunately for you, a chance for mercy is abolished." Saji said, "Prepare for the punishment."

As the man slowly got up, Saji unclipped on of his knives and opened the blade. He threw it at the man and it struck him at his left shoulder. He fell back down on his back from the hit and was too weak to move. Saji slowly unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards to fallen criminal.

"Please have mercy." The killer begged as he laid on the floor, "I'm defenseless."

"And break my law of justice?" Saji asked, "Never."

He thrusted the sword up and slammed it down. The sword cut through the air like butter and pierced the flesh. As Saji removedthe sword and sheathed it back, blood began to cover the carpet floor of where the body was. Saji reahced over and pulled out the knife that was lodged on the dead man's shoulder and clipped it back on his belt. As Saji proceeded to exit through the window the killer had came in through, he began to hear the sound of whimpering. Judging from the sound, it was a boy, possibly around 9 or maybe 10. The tone of the voice told Saji that this boy was near, and terrified. Saji followed the sound of the whimpering and to his horror, a boy was crouched there, hidden in the corner.

"Please...don't hurt me." The boy begged through the sound of his terrified voice. Saji looked over to the wall next to him and saw a noticable picture of that boy on it. He was smiling in it and standing next to him was Him. The man Saji had just killed, the boy's father. "Please..."

Saji slowly stood up before the boy. He reached for his hat and mask and removed them from his head. The shadow of the night concealed his face from sight, so the boy wasn't able to see who Saji was behind the mask. "I won't hurt you." Tai sad softly, "I'm not the bad guy." He proceeded to walk towards the window, leaving the boy alone with his dead father. _Or am I?_

* * *

Saji stood on the top of the building he had just exited from. The wind blew his cape as he looked down on the people below. 

_Is this the true appearance of fear?_ He asked himself.

The image of seeing the boy began to flash through his mind. The sound of him crying was torture to his ears. He couldn't handle it. He grabbed his mask and pulled it off, screaming in fury up to the night sky.

As he proceeded to scream out his anguish, his shadow began to do something unnatural. The shadow began to move on its own. The shadow pulled itself away from Saji, leaving behind another one in its place. The moving shadow traveled towards the edge of the building and dropped down.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. I understand if this seemed too dark for some of you, but it was the best I could think of. Anyways, most of you have already guessed, the last scene was taken from the Daredevil movie.**

**I also made some changes to the trailer.  
The 'smoke-man' will not be working with the Jester clone. Instead, he's gonna be a criminal with his own intentions, similar to Sandman in the upcoming Spiderman movie.**

**I'll try to introduce Davis' persona into the next chapter, but I can't make any promises.**

**Please give a review.**


	5. The Cape

**Sorry for the long wait, but I had to study for exams. Christmas holidays are near, so I'll have more time to work on this.**

**

* * *

**

The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity

**Chapter 4**

**The Cape**

The shadow that had left Saji reached down to the bottom of the building. It remained in the shadows, and seemed invisible, but aura of dark energy made it stand out from the shadow of everyday night. This shadow had a figure, but a 2D figure is what it would remain. It needed a body. It needed a host. The shadow figure was in dire need of a host to possess for a human figure. Scouring the alleyway, the shadow had no luck finding something.

"Check in here." A voice said, "This is where the trail leads."

A group of police officers have picked up on the blood trail left by the previously murdered woman. Three of them followed the blood trail that led them to where the shadow was. Just its luck; it needed to search for one host and now it has three to choose from.

"Looks like a dead end." one of the officers said.

"Maybe the criminal found a way around." the other said, "Kai, stay here and call us if you find anything."

"Got it." the other two officers left the scene, leaving officer Kai to investigate the scene alone.

As he looked around, holding his flashlight to shine into the corners, the shadow figure loomed around him. The lights that were coming from the walls of the alleyway were becoming a nuisance. The shadow figure hovered over to them and one by one, destroyed the light bulbs of each. For each one shot out, officer Kai looked around for anything suspicious. There was no light left in the alleyway, only those from the windows of the homes and his flashlight. The shadow figure returned to Kai and hid itself in the officer's shadow.

_Kai, got nothing here._ Kai's police radio went off, _The crook possibly left the blood trail as a distraction._

"Alright then." Kai responded back into the radio, "I'll meet you guys back at the precinct."

As he turned off his radio, the shadow loomed up, over Kai. Its size grew massively, towering over him. As Kai turned around he was facing the black figure of nothingness.

"What the..." Those were the last words ever heard from him. As the shadow enveloped around him, his existence faded. Standing in his place was a figure that was now three-dimensioned. The shadows around him took for of clothing. The body was covered by a large black cape and a hat on top. Hidden underneath the hat was a mask, the mask of one that the entire city knows, but not as they know him. It was the mask of Saji.

* * *

Davis was fast asleep in the guest room of Tai's residence. It was late at night and Tai wasn't home yet. Davis began to toss and turn over the bed from something that haunted his mind. 

_"Where am I?" Davis asked, "Is anybody there?!"_

_A strange sound began to echo in the blankness of his mind. Faint at first, but it began to intensify over time. The words began to become more and more clear as the voice grew louder._

_"I hate you..."  
"I hate you..."  
"I hate you..."_

_The voice was greatly familiar to Davis. The voice that these words came out of tore him apart. It was Kari's voice._

_"No stop." Davis begged, "Please stop."_

_"I'm not interested in you..."  
"Why do you keep trying..."  
"When will you give up..."  
"Stop trying Davis..."  
"You're hopeless..."_

_"STOP!!"_

Davis forced himself up on the bed. Cold sweat was drizzling down his face from the nightmare he had. Kari's rejection still haunted him, tearing him apart from inside. Davis needed some time away from sleep. He got out of bed and headed down the flight of stairs towards the kitchen.

"Maybe a snack might help me out." Davis said to himself.

Davis went to the fridge of the kitchen to grab anything edible for himself, not that it mattered whether it was edible or not. Daivs was one of those people who would eat anything as long as it goes in the catergory of food. Davis didn't find much to eat for the night except for some carrots and celery sticks. Davis took one from the carrots and chomped on it as he sat down on a seat with the kitchen table. Tai wasn't home yet,so he had the house to himself for the time being. He felt like it wouldn't do any harm to explore the place.

"I wonder what's in the basement." Davis said to himself.

Holding what was left of the carrot, he walked down the halls, searching for the door that would lead him to the basement. His sense of discovery and risk-taking got the best of him tonight, regardless of what he went through several hours ago. Within several seconds, he found the door that led him to a flight of stairs that went down. It was about time he found it, considering he went through several doors that led him to other places, such as; the broom closet, the guest washroom, and the entrance to the garage. He went down the stairs and found himself on a concrete floor. The basement was definitly unfinished, but it still looked appealing. There was a ping-pong table, a foosball table, a dart board, and a large portrait of a ninja.

"Sweet." Davis said to himself, "But why does Tai keep it here of all places?"

Davis looked up at the eyes of the picture. He noticed that there was something strange about the eyes, something almost real about them. Davis reached up to examine the eyes. "That's weird." Davis said. As his fingers came in contact with the eyes, he noticed that the eyes were not a part of the picture. The eyes began to glow, emitting a very dark red color. Davis retracted his hand in surprise when he heard the sound mechanical whirring. He backed away from the picture and saw that it slid up, beneath the wall. Before him was a passageway that was once traveled through by Taichi Kamiy just over an hour or two ago. Davis walked down the pathway, not knowing and not caring what was on the other side. He had his hands on the walls, waiting for when the tunnel led to a room. He finally came to an area where the tunnel ended. It was dark, Davis had no clue what would be ahead of him. He felt the wall on both sides to find any light switch. To his right he felt a large toggle. He pulled it and the lights went on in the cave.

"Holy..." Davis was astonished by his discovery. He looked around the cave, staring at the items that were in here. Davis then came across a table that had several items on it. There were small metal devices that had a tiny unlit bulb on it(the mini detonators). He also saw some rectangular metal plate on the table. He took one with caution, seeing that it looked sharp. The plate resembled what looked like playing cards. On one side, there was the design on a card; white with the suit and value on it. Davis flipped it over and on the back, was the engraving of two daggers crossing blades.

"Oh my god." Davis finally realized it. Tai was _him_. Tai was Saji. Tai was The Dark Jester.

Davis then heard that faint sound of something tapping on glass. He turned his head to where it came from and what caught his eye was a cylindrical glass chamber that had some sort of black material inside it. "What the..."

He walked over to the chamber to take a closer look at the black 'thing'. He looked carefully at the material and saw that it looked like it was moving. On the glass, in metal, Davis saw an inscription on the metal plate that read.

**Cape of the Apocalypse**

This began to sprout more curiousity in Davis' mind. _Cape of the Apocalypse? What could that mean?_ Davis wanted to know what that cape was. He pressed his right hand on the cold glass. He continued to stare at the cape as it hovered around in the chamber. As Davis stared at the black cape, it moved as if it looked at him directly. Davis removed his hand from the glass and slowly backed away. The cape then backed away from Davis pressing itself on the glass on the opposite side.

"I think I should leave." Davis said to himself.

The cape then thrusted forward. In Davis' shock, the cape cracked through the glass. The cape repeatedly smashed through the glass and eventually broke through. Davis was too slow to avoid the next actions. The cape thrusted itself onto Davis and latched onto his right arm. The cape then formed into some 'goopy' material and began to spread up his arm.

"Get off me!" Davis grabbed ahold of the black material and attempted to rip it off. He took ahold of the ripped material in his left hand, but the cape began to form over it too. Davis began to whip his arm around, trying to force the cape off of him, but he made no luck. Davis was too focused on the black material on his arms that he didn't pay attention to what was behind him. Davis came closer and closer to the wall behind him, and didn't see that his head was getting closer to the steel support pipe. He thrusted his head back and the back of his head hit the pipe. He fell forward, landing on his knees and then fell on his face. As he laid unconcious, the cape continued to form up his arms. The cape began to form over his clothing, wrapping tightly over it and reaching down to his legs. The cape then crawled up to his neck and expanded over his head.

From there everything went from black to nothingness...

* * *

Tai remained on the top of the building as the night sky kept covering the city. With all the killing he had done for the past months, he had every reason to let it out through anger. The voices of his victims continued to echo in his mind. Among those screams, something came into his head that stood out from the other voices. When this voice came, all others ceased. It was the voice of a girl, but who? 

Tai looked up to the sky, staring at the moonlight. In the way of the Tai's view was a large flagpole with a flag waving from the wind, the end of the flag was ripped and looked like it was to the trash with that one. Tai put his mask back on and proceeded to jump off the roof. He shot out a cable from his wrist and flung himself to the roof of the next building and continued swinging away.

As Saji left the scene, the flag that Tai had recently laid eyes on began to act differently from a normal cape. The pole began to expand in size, forming what looked like a body. The flag then detached itself from the pole and merged with the body. That flag was not a flag at all, it was the cape of whatever was hanging on the pole. The body began to drift upwards and to the top of the pole, where its cape hung down and drifted with the wind.

"Uh...where am I?" The body asked. It looked at its body, starting with its hands, then down to its legs. "What is this?"

As this 'thing' examined itself, it finally recieved a recollection of what it went through. Images flashed through its mind; ripping a black material off of the arm of a human, knocked unconscious from an impact to the head, the black material consuming the human body. It remembered it all. This 'thing' was Davis.

"How did this get on me?" Davis asked himself. Realizing that something else was different, he had to ask, "Is this my voice?"

His voice had changed from his teenaged tone to a more deep and dark type of voice.

Davis looked down to the streets below, he saw that there were several police cars chasing after a man on foot. The man ran into a building, hoping to avoid capture from the force. After several minutes of patience, Davis saw that the man made it to the roof of the building he entered. As if it was a mind control effect, Davis stood up on the pole. The wind blew his cape to uncover his body. His entire body was covered with the black cape, exaggerated muscles were present on his body. His boots were noticable by a raised pattern on his lower legs; the pattern resembled claws pointing up. The arms had a similar design for the forearms. The chest had a raised image of a large 'V' that traveled to his arms. (**If you guys know what Nightwing looks like, the blue 'V' design is what is on this guy, just black and raised.**)

He looked at the man who was on the rooftop. With his mind still somewhat 'controled', he jumped off the flagpole and fell down below. His cape floated up and spread out. It then began to change in shape and formed wings of a devil. The wings thrusted forward and Davis was brought up, gliding towards the building ahead of him.

"This is awesome." Davis said to himself.

His wings flapped with excellent grace, making no sound from the pressure of the manipulated air. He slowly descended down to the roof of the building he was reaching. He brought his legs forward and came in contact with the ground below. As he landed, his wings formed back into its black cape. The man who was on the roof with Davis looked at him. He looked in shock when his eyes met with the large blood-red eyes of the black figure standing before him.

"Who the fuck are you?" The man asked.

_Oh shit._ Davis thought to himself, _I've got no name._

"Just stay away from me!" The man pulled out a gun, "I'll blow your fucking head off."

_Well, he pulled out the weapon first._ Davis thought to himself.

Davis' actions were under the influence of the mind that inhabited the cape. Davis' body flattened and became a standing shadow, with the red eyes still visible. In panic, the man pulled the trigger and fired several rounds at Davis, but the bullets didn't affect him. Instead, they were absorbed by him. After firing the last bullet, the man was amazed, yet horrified that the gun did no good. Davis' body took form of his original three-dimensional self and raised a fist towards the man. He opened the fist and all the rounds that were fired at him fell from his hand and to the ground. As Davis slowly walked over to the man, he drew out a knife and Davis stepped back.

"Keep away!" He demanded.

"Oh, now you want to poke." Davis felt his cape form over his forearms. He saw that the cape wrapped around them and extended outward to a long flat sheet. The shape of the cape clearly showed that it created blades on his arms. They were two and a half feet in length and the cape formed into black metal, blending well with the black cape. "Lets poke."

Davis charged first. He raised the blade on his left arm forward and thrusted it towards the man. The blade came in contact with the knife and the man was forced to release his grip on it or lose his fingers. The knife fell to the ground there it remained. Davis thrusted the blade on his right arm and pinned the man's right foot to the concrete ground. The impact forced blood to leak out of his foot and through his shoe, all the while screaming in pain from the hit. Davis pulled the blade from the foot and pierced the man's right shoulder with his blade. The man fell to the ground from the hit and was forced to stay down as Davis put pressure on the shoulder.

"This is so you remember to think twice before you steal any more crap." Davis said. He retracted the blades and they went back to being a part of his cape.

"Who the hell are you?" The man asked through the pain in him.

_Aw shit._ Davis thought, _Come on. Think of something._ After a few seconds of pausing, an idea came in. "I'm **Vestige**** the Shadowveil**."

Davis walked over to the briefcase the man was carrying and opened it to see what was inside. He opened the case and saw was put in awe of the contents. Inside the briefcase were bricks of gold, solid gold. The size of the suitcase had the bricks in 3 bricks long, 4 bricks wide, and 2 bricks deep. Though, through the mask, no mouth was visible, Davis gave a smile, a smile of delight.

The police finally arrived when they heard the sound of a scremaing man coming from the rooftops of a building. They came up and found the wounded man, right were Vestige had left him. They found the briefcase that they saw the man with earlier and opened it to see the contents.

"We have the stolen item." one of the officers said into his radio, "Gold bricks. three bricks by four."

They closed the case and brought the man down with them, handcuffed.

In the shadows, the red eyes stared down at the man as he was being dragged off. He caught sight of the eyes and forced himself to stop moving.

"Its him!" The man yelled, "He's over there!"

He thrusted his head to the direction of where the eyes were. The police aimed their flashlights at the spot, but found nothing there.

"He's lost his mind. Let's get him outta here."

"He's there! I saw him!" The man continued to hysterically make the claim that he saw the eyes of his predetor.

From where the eyes were, the body came forth. Vestige emerged fromm the shadows.

"The power. It feels good." Vestige said to himself, "I've never felt so good." Vestige walked over to the ledge of the building. Down below, the police were just shoving the man into their vehicle. Vestige took pride in this. It was his first day and he had just stopped a criminal. Hidden in his cape, Vestige had a large clawed hand inside the cape, holding fairly large items that shined when the streetlights and the moonlight shined on it. It gave off a gold hine when it reflected the light. The face of Vestige slowly dissolved down to his neck to reveal Davis' face.

"Step back Odaiba. You've got a new hero in town." Davis said, "I just hope Tai would allow it." Davis looked at his black costume. He liked how it felt to be a superhero, her loved the feeling of flying and bringing justice, "But what the hell?"

His mask formed back on his head. He jumped off the building and his cape took form of wings. They flapped, keeping Davis up in the air. Knowing his sense of direction, he had his headings towards Tai's place.

* * *

Saji was running on the rooftops of the buildings, jumping from building to building when he had to. As he continued to run, something caught his eyes. He looked over to the sky and saw a small and faint image of a winged figure flying in the same direction as him.

"What could that be?" He asked himself, "Hope its not a threat."

* * *

As Vestige flew through the sky, he looked down and saw a small and faint image of a caped person jumping off the rooftops and heading in the same direction as him.

"What could that be?" He asked himself, "Hope its not a threat. I'm kinda tired for another round."

* * *

**Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I read the reviews and one of them required me to give an explanation to you all. I will definitly go in depth with the romance between Tai and Sora, as well as Davis with Kari, but don't expect it too soon. It'll probably be near the end of the story. I'll also try to make this a long chaptered story, possibly up to fifteen or maybe twenty chapters, but no promises.**

**As more our new protaganist, Vestige. Here's a brief summary of whatthe cape can do.**

**1) It works like the symbiote from Spiderman; it looks like 'goop' when its covering Davis' body or removing itself from him. The cape looks like clothing when its on Davis.**

**2) The cape can form many different things for Davis' use. So far, it formed wings, blades on his arm, and also an extra hand to hold and hide the gold he took. He'll be able to do more later on, but not god-like.**

**3) His able to merge into shadow.**

**4) He has a darker voice.**

**Please Read and Review.**


	6. Surprises

**Before I forget, Here's the description of what Vestige looks like.**

**His body is just like Hybrid from the Spiderman comics, but he's completely black. He has the raised designs on his body. His horns are more smooth and sleek like Batman's. His eyes are bloodred(later green) and his cape is bigger and covers the body most of the time.**

**I do not own the song 'You're Only Second Rate" from the 'Return of Jafar' movie.

* * *

**

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Five**

**Surprises  
**

It was the start of school and Davis was tired. Spending the weekend at Tai's was a mistake, he had no sleep and spent the night watching TV with Tai. Of course Davis wasn't upset about it. He enjoyed staying up with friends, but the effect it does on a schoolday was what he hated. If 'tired' never existed, Davis would be in heaven.

Davis walked into the school building, with his bag on his back. He walked down the hall, passing by classroom doors and students. Despite the fact that he stayed up on Sunday, he wasn't tired enough to be late. A miracle for Davis Motomiya to arrive on time for school on a Monday. As he turned a corner to get to his locker, a figure came right in front of him. The figure was a teenaged boy and by how he moved, he was pushed hard. He slammed into the lockers and slowly fell down to the floor.

"You think its funny fucker?" Davis looked over to who pushed the victim. It was none other than Davis' highschool gymclass rival, Jinsu, "You think its funny trying to talk to my girlfriend?"

"I did nothing wrong." The bullied replied, "She's just my Chem. lab partner. I just needed to tell her about it."

"Like I'm gonna belive that." Jinsu scoffed, "Typical Jon Kashincho. Always making excuses to talk to girls. Can't you think of something more belivable?"

"But its true." Jon slowly got up from the floor, holding onto the locker as support, "You can't stop her from talking to other guys anyways."

_Uh oh._ Davis thought to himself, _Bad move._

"You son of a..." Jinsu raised a fist, ready to swing at Jon, but Davis quickly stepped in between the two.

"Hey hey hey. Calm down. There's no need for violence." Davis said, "Besides, I don't think any of us want to be late for class."

"Get out of my way Motomiya." Jinsu said raising his fist in front of Davis' face. "Unless you want some of this too."

"Save it for gym class." Davis replied with a smirk, "Why don't we settle this over the dodgeball game we're having in class."

"Fine then." Jinsu lowered his fist and stormed off to the gym.

Davis turned around to Jon and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You alright Jon?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jon answered, "I don't understand. I only talked to Karen to go over the Chem lab after lunch. Why does he have to act lie that?"

"He's just a cocksucker." Davis replied, "He gets jealous when other guys talk to his girlfriend." Davis was a close friend to Jon. He was te main reason why Davis hasn't failed any classes. He always went to Jon for help with any subject and Jon willingly helped him. In return, Davis promised to help him survive to tough life of highschool. "You better get to class." Davis said, "I'll see you later."

"Davis!"

Davis looked over to where the voice came from. Running towards him was Yolei.

"Where have you been? Gym class is starting soon." Yolei said, "Its the dodgeball match."

"I think I know that." Davis said, "I just had to deal with some other issues."

"What happened to Jon now?" Yolei asked, looking over to Jon as he slowly walked off down the hall and to his classroom.

"Jinsu accused him of hitting on Karen." Davis said.

"That bastard." Yolei muttered, "When will he ever give Jon a break. He's always finding excuses to pick on the poor guy."

The two walked together down the hall and to the gym. Everyone at school knew that Yolei was dating rival school student Ken Ichojouji, but Yolei couldn't care less about what they said about her, if they said anything offensive about Ken, it was their funeral.

"You know, you look different today Davis." Yolei commented.

She was right. Davis did change over the weekend. His hair was no longer spiked to frizz out like a shocked person, but spiked with a sense of style. All his hair was spiked back, revealing his forehead more.(exactly the same as **Axel** from **Kingdom Hearts 2**, but the hair not red and is alot shorter.)

"Well, I felt I needed some changes." Davis said, "You went from glasses to contacts, TK and Kari went from a couple to best friends, Matt made it from a rock star to wanting to learn about space, and Tai had a change of hair style. I fell I deserve to have some sort of change."

"I guess you're right about that." Yolei smiled, "Come on, let's not be late for gym class. You ready for the dodgeball match?"

"Am I ever not ready?"

While the two made their way to the gym, Jon changed directions and went into the washroom instead. He went over to the sink and grabbed it with both hands and bent over. He slowly looked up to his reflection with an angry face.

"I can't take this anymore." He said to himself, "Why does he have to be like this to me?"

His eyes slowly began to emit a bright red glow. His skin then began to release thin sheets of smoke. As his anger rose, so did the amount of smoke from his body. His rage was what created the screen. As the smoke began to consume the room, he had flashbacks of what happened that night.

_"What...happened...to me?" He looked around his body. The smoke began to clear from him and he was completely back to his normal self. He removed the mask from his face. He was sweating from the near death he had just had and tossed the mask aside. The criminal was none other than our Jon Kashincho._

_"I better get out of here." Jon ran further away from the scene and made it back on the road. As he walked down the road, a car passed by him. He waved at the car to get the driver's attention. The car stopped in front of him and opened the window._

_"Can I help you buddy?" The driver asked._

_Jon ran over to the driver's side and pulled out his gun, "Get out."_

_Without thinking twice, the driver got out of the car in panic. To make sure that he didn't fight back, Jon released a stream of smoke that grasped the man. He then lifted him up and tossed him away, into the grassy field that Jon had previously come from.  
_

* * *

"Spread Out!" Orders were made by Davis as his team was moving all over their half of the gym. 

The game was dodgeball. Davis' team had the disadvantage as they only had three members on the floor while Jinsu's team had nine. Jinsu dominated the game by being the only one who threw the ball and actually hit someone. Davis only survived the game by dodging every shot made at him and never thinking about catching the ball.

"Get Davis!" Jinsu ordered his teammates, "Get Him Out!"

With only three people on Davis' team, it wasn't too easy to hit any of them, but with the amount of force thrown at them, having possession of the ball would be difficult for Davis.

"Come on Davis!" Yolei cheered from the sidelines, "Win this for us!"

Jinsu threw a ball directly towards one of Davis' teammates and hit him right at the chest. That now left them with Davis and one other teammate. A nine on two seemed like impossible odds and even Yolei thought that Davis would have no hope in this. Davis scurried around across the court, dodging the shots and trying to grab a ball when he had the chance, but each ball was always bounced back to the other side.

Jinsu got ahold of another ball and prepared to throw. He took aim at Davis and took his shot. Davis saw the ball coming and fell on his back to dodge the ball. The ball bounced off the wall, but Davis caught it just in time. He got up and held the ball in hand. He found his target and threw the ball. The ball flew through the air and came in contact with Jinsu's face. He fell back from the hit and that brought their number down to eight.

The rest of the match was one-sided after that. With Jinsu out, Davis had no trouble taking out the others. The game finally ended with Davis' team being the winners. The match took up the entire gym class, so the students went to the changerooms to get back into their casualwear. Davis opened his bag to put his gym clothes in. When he opened it, a black sheet of an unknown material was inside. Davis quickly shoved the clothes and zipped up the bag.

* * *

"That was awsome Davis." Yolei said, "You nailed him right in the face. The look on his face was priceless." 

The morning went well, Davis attended his math class with Jon in his class. Of course, Davis had trouble understanding the facts of limits and derivatives, but Jon helped him out for the remainder of the class.

Lunchtime came quickly for Davis. He got his lunch and sat down at a table and was later joined by Yolei and TK.

"Hey Davis." TK smiled, "Yolei told me about how you creamed Jinsu in dodgeball."

"She probably overexaggerated." Davis replied, smiling back.

The three spent the first fifteen minutes chatting with eachother about anyting new that they missed out on. The conversations were often funny with Davis making comments occasionally.

"Did you hear about what happened to the end of the science hall?" TK asked.

"Yeah, some dude overused some chemicals in a lab and blew through the basement." Yolei said.

After a while of chatting, someone spilled the beans.

"Hey wait, where's Kari?" Yolei asked.

_Kari._ Why did he feel this way? Why does her name make him feel like this all of a sudden? When Yolei said her name, Davis suddenly got a feeling of hatred in him, but why?

"She told me she had to stay in her English class for something." TK said, "She wouldn't tell me why though."

"Oh hey, there she is." Yolei pointed out to Kari, who was walking down the cafeteria towards their table.

As she got closer, Davis could see the bright smile on her face. It finally clicked into him; Kari's rejection was what set him off. Now Davis was mad inside, but he didn't care anymore. The look on her face made it seem like she didn't care about what she said to him. "Uh sorry guys, but I gotta go."

"What for?" TK asked, "We've still got a good 45 minutes left of lunch."

"It doesn't concern you." Davis snapped. He got up from his seat and proceeded towards the exit of the cafeteria, walking right past Kari, not looking at her to reply to her 'hi Davis.' This was strange. Davis was now acting very strangely. He was no longer the happy-go-lucky friendly guy, but more of the cold-shoulder giver. But what stranged him out the most was that he liked this feeling.

"What's wrong with him?" Kari asked, "He didn't look to happy."

"Beats me." Yolei said, "I don't see why he's acting like that."

"Oh yeah, I got my ticket for the school spring melody dance." Kari reached into her pocket and pulled out a colorful ticket, "You guys are going right?"

* * *

It was the night of the dance and the school gym was packed with the students who paid for their tickets. Yolei took the liberty to pay for Ken's ticket and bring him to the dance. As always, TK and Kari went to the school dance together. Davis arrived alone, as he did in previous dances, and it always made him feel so 'low-life'-ed, because of it. 

"Hey guys." Kari and TK came towards Yolei and Ken, "Where's Davis?"

"He left a few seconds ago to hit the dance floor." Ken answered.

"This is getting strange." Kari noted.

"Why" Yolei asked.

"Throughout the whole dance, I think Davis has been avoiding me." Kari said, "When I saw him at the entrance on my way inside, he dashed right in, not responding to me when I called him. I've tried to get his attention occasionally, but he always disappeared from my sight."

"That _is_ weird." Yolei said, "Since when would Davis avoid Kari?"

"Maybe she did something to make him act like that." A voice said from behind Kari.

The four of them looked over to the person. "Tai."

* * *

From the rooftops of the school, a dark caped figure stood, looking into the gym from the sunroof.

* * *

"Hey guys." Tai smiled, "Am I late?" 

"What are you doing here?" Kari asked.

"Its my last night with the car before mom and dad come home." Tai said, "I wanted to do something."

"What was that you said about Kari doing something to Davis?" Ken asked, "Do you know something?"

"Its just a guess." Tai lied. He knew very well why Davis was acting the way he was. Kari's rejection was what caused it. He knew that Davis was pursueing Kari for a long time, but this time Davis put his whole heart into telling Kari, making the rejection more devastating.

"I have to talk to him." Kari said. She left the group to go look for Davis. She found Davis in the middle of the floor and approuched him, but the music changed up.

"Grab a partner! Its time for the annual Spring Beat!" The DJ announced.

_Uh oh._ Davis thought. _I don't know the dance for this._

(Check out the video scene from the **Step Up** movie. The scene is where Channing Tatum is dancing with Jenna Dawen at the party where Channing doesn't know the routine. Davis is the like Channing and some random girl will be Jenna.)

The music ended with people cheering Davis on. Davis smiled as he took in the praise and glory. As he stood around to admire the cheering, he felt a grab on his shoulder and was pulled away from attention.

"Hey what gives?" He asked, "Uh, Kari."

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Kari asked.

"Actually, there is." Davis replied with a stern tone, but before he could tell her, something got everyone's attention and caused them to panic.

The caped figure from the roof broke through the sunroof and landed in the center of the gym, with shards of broken glass around him. Everyone stood in shock to see who it was. Standing before them all, was the black caped Warrior of the Night. It was The Dark Jester.

"Am I late for the party?" He asked with his traditional english accent, but this time, produced a more darker tone.

"Oh my god, its him." Kari looked in shock to see him.

"This doesn't look good." Davis said. He slowly backed away from Kari and made his way outside the gym and to his locker.

While Davis ran out of the gym, Tai ran back to his car and took out his duffle bag from the back of the car. He took it and ran towards the back of the school. With the knowledge he had of this school during his time in it, he knew this area was well away from sight of others.

* * *

"Where is _he_?" The Jester asked, "I know _he's_ here." 

"Who's he?" Kari asked.

"Kari, come here." Yolei ran over to Kari and pulled her over to where TK and Ken were, "Where's Davis?"

"I-I don't know." Kari looked around her to hope that Davis was around, but he was nowhere, "I thought he was right next to me."

"I'll ask one more time!" The clown spoke out, "Where is _he_?!"

"I'm not sure who you're looking for, but can I suffice?" A voice said from above.

Everyone looked up to the broken sunroof. To their surprise, The Dark Jester was standing there as well.

"What? Two of them?" Ken looked at the two clowns that were in his sight, as well as the sight of everyone else.

"Ah, just who I was looking for." The imposter said, "I was hoping to find you here." The clone jumped up through the sunroof and landed before Saji.

"Wait, you're me." Tai looked at the clone through Saji's mask. This clone looked like Saji in every way except for the mask. (If you remember how the mask looked like, the black and white on the mask are switched. If you don't remember, the mask is exactly like the mask worn by **Peten the Dark Clown**from the **Yu-gi-oh** cards.)

"True, I am you." The clone replied, "But you're the reason why I'm incomplete."

"What?" Tai was confused by that statement. How is it his fault?

"I was created by your agony, your anguish, your rage, and all evil thoughts contained in your heart." The clone explained, "But because I wasonly created by your thoughts and feelings, I'm not whole."

"Then why were you looking for me?" Saji asked.

"Once I eliminate you, I will be whole and I will be the true Dark Jester." The clone replied, "That is why I've been searching for you."

"Enough." Saji took out two bladed cards from his belt and threw them at the clone.

The cards came towards the clone, but he dodged the cards with ease and swiftly made it behind Saji.

"What hope do you have against me?" The clone asked, "I was created by your anger. Anger is what made you powerful, but your humanity is what held you back from true power."

The clone then swung his left leg and tripped Saji. As Saji began to fall back, the clone grabbed him by his neck and threw him up, connecting it with a punch to the back. Saji landed hard to the ground, landing on his back. The sheer pain kept him on the ground, unable to get up quickly.

"What else can you do?" The clone asked.

As Saji was still on the ground, he snapped his fingers, creating a large cloud of smoke that covered him. When the smoke cleared, Saji was gone from the spot he was previously in. The clone seemed to know too well the tricks of Saji. He spun around, swinging his arm and with unfortunate outcomes, the arm slammed into Saji.

"I am Xevin." The clone called out, "I am the true Dark Jester."

_I must admit,  
your parlor tricks are amusing.  
I bet you've got a bunny  
under your hat._

Saji suddenly began to feel something move in his hat. With panic, he quickly pulled it off and as if by magic, a white rabbit was found under his hat.

"What the..." The rabbit then disappeared in a puff of smoke, "How did he...?" He put the hat back on and prepared for whatever this clone was planning.

_Now here's your chance  
to get the best of me._

Saji slowly reached for the purple feather on his hat and held it between his index finger and thumb. Hidden at the tip of the feather was a small sharp blade. Saji threw the feather and it flew like a dart, but Xevin simply shifted over to the side to dodge the feather.

_Hope your hand is hot!_

With a snap of his fingers, both of Xevin's gloved hands were engulfed in flames, but they weren't burning up.

_C'mon, clown,  
let's see what you've got!_

Saji pulled out two of his swords and prepared to charge at Xevin. He ran towards his clone and swung his swords at him, but Xevin dodged each blow and flipped over him, landing behind him. He then connected his movements with a hook kick to Saji's head. Saji flew through the air.

_You try to slam me  
with your hardest stuff,  
but your double whammy  
isn't up to snuff._

_I'll set the record straight,  
you're simply out of date.  
You're only second rate!_

"How are you so powerful?" Saji asked.

"I have no humanity in me." Xevin replied, "No humanity, no hindrance in power."

_Men cower at the power  
in my pinky._

As Saji tried to slice at Xevin, he blocked the slash with only his pinky. Saji looked in shock as the blade left no mark on his finger.

_My thumb is number one  
on every list._

Xevin used his other fist and brought out his thumb. He used the thumb and slammed it on Saji's forehead. The immense strength forced Saji to fall back. This power was getting to be too much for him.

_But if you're not convinced  
that I'm invincible,  
put me to the test.  
I'd love to lay this rivalry to rest._

Saji tossed up both his swords and pulled out other two swords. As the other two swords came down, Saji caught them. Now he held two swords in each hand, with the blades out from each side. Saji ran at Xevin spinning all four blades forward, creating somewhat of a shield of swords.

_Go ahead and zap me  
with the big surprise.  
Snap me in a trap,_

Saji then proceeded to slashed at Xevin, with four swords in hand, he sliced at Xevin as if he was meat.

_Cut me down to size._

Xevin then fell into pieces of fabric, but the pieces then faded into the shadow. Xevin appeared behind Saji.

_I'll make a big escape.  
It's just a piece of cake.  
You're only second rate._

Xevin punched Saji and forced him on his knees. He then kicked Saji with strong force and sent him flying towards the science hall of the school. From the accident that a student made in the lab, the roof was blown out as well as the floor, leading to the basement. Saji fell through the hole and landedin the basement of the destroyed science room. Xevin walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down on Saji as he laid on the floor of the dark and dirty basement floor.

"Good bye clown." Xevin said, "I'll be taking over your duties."

Xevin took out a card from his sleeves and threw it at a pile of sandbags that was sitting on a wood platform supported by beams that were just above Saji. The bags were hit by the card and the sand spilled out. The sand began to fill the basement, covering Saji in the sand. Xevin stood over the mayhem and walked away from the site.

The sand finally ceased to spill and all was quiet. From the bottom of the sandpile, something began to stir. A gloved hand broke through the sand and reached out to the sky looking for escape. As the hand wriggled around for freedom, a black hand broke into the sand to grab the wrist and pull the hand out. Saji slowly came out of the sand and looked up to his savior.

The black caped figure hung on his long caped arm as his other arm was grabbing onto Saji's arm. The red eyes looked down to Saji as he pulled Saji up.

"Who...are...you?" Saji asked.

The face slowly began to crawl off the black material to reveal the face underneath. Under the mask was the Davis. He smiled as he looked down to Saji.

"Hi." He simply said.

* * *

**Sorry for the wait, but here's the next chapter. Please read and review on this. I'll definitly have the next chapter ready before the month ends.**


	7. From Bad to Worse

**Here's me next chapter. I'll do my best to get this to last at least fifteen chapters. I've also noticed that not many people are sending reviews on this story as much as before. The next will be up once I recieve at least 40 reviews.

* * *

**

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Six**

**From Bad to Worse**

"What the hell do you think you were doing?!" Tai screamed out.

Tai and Davis were back in Saji's cave. Tai was shirtless with some bandages wrapped around his arms and chest. Apparently, the battle with Xevin made some damages.

"You've got a serious problem with thanking people. I think I could do well as a partner." Davis said, "You don't have to worry about naming me. I already got one. What do you think about **Vestige**."

"How about you stay as Davis Motomiya?" Tai asked.

"The hell with you. I just saved your life." Davis snapped back. He had a smile of success in his face. What happened was incredible for him.

"This explains why the cape was missing." Tai said to himself, "Don't you know where that cape is from?"

"Uh...a halloween store maybe?" Davis joked. What did he know about it? He just found the cape and it latched onto him.

"It's all thats left of Apocalymon!" Tai yelled, "You have any idea how dangerous that cape is?! You have any idea what would happen if it controled you?!"

"I'm not a little kid anymore." Davis replied, "Besides, I just might give Kari a little scare for what she did to me." The thought of what Kari did to him that one afternoon still haunted his mind. The rejection was deeper than any other one he faced. Revenge was what coursed through his veins.

"You have to learn to let things go." Tai said, "I learned that the hard way and that made me what I am now."

"Yeah well, I've been through worse situations." Davis said.

"You won't know that until the time comes." Tai said, "Give the cape back."

"No." Davis relied with a strong tone, "This is who I am. I'm keeping it, I can control it."

"I don't care, I'm not risking it." Tai slowly got up and approuched Davis, but Davis backed away, holding the cape in his hands tightly.

"You can't stop me. Whenever you're out kicking evil's ass, I'll be by your side doing the same." Davis said, "Where ever Saji goes, Vestige will be right there beside him."

Davis didn't want to give up this power. It was what made him feel better about himself. He felt better than ever, better than others, better than life itself. This was something Davis wasn't planning on gving up too easily. This was the only thing that would keep his spirit up.

"The cape is mine." Davis said, "And I'm not giving it up."

He then turned to walk away, heading towards Tai's place and on his way out. Tai's injuries prevented Tai from chasing after Davis, so all he could do was watch as Davis walked off with the cape in his hands.

* * *

Sora was walking home, she had stayed at Matt's place for the night and left shortly afterwards. She walked down the dark street of Odaiba, cautiously looking around for anything suspicious. After a certain event that happened sometime ago, Sora was now more cautious about her surroundings. 

_"The police are on their way." Matt said. He looked over to Sora and saw that she was wlaking over to Tai, who had now put his mask back on. _

_"Tai?" Sora tried to get his attention, "Tai, I know you can hear me."_

_"Of course I can hear you." Saji rpelied, "But do you honestly think I would forget what happened several hours ago?"_

_"Tai, I'm..."_

_"Its Saji."Saji interrupted, "My name is Saji."_

_"Tai."Sora chose not to be corrected. This was the name she knew, "I'm so sorry."_

_"You think apologizing will make this all better?!" Saji raised his voice, "You think apologizing will make me forget that you almost had me killed?"_

_"Tai, please."_

_"Be gone." Saji looked away from Sora, "You have lost my respect. From here on forth, I will not be protecting you."_

_From afar, the sound of sirens grew louder and louder. "They're here." Matt said, "Come on Sora."_

She couldn't help but look back on that night everytime she walks home alone. He said that he would no longer protect her and she knew that Tai meant every word.

From the rooftops of the building Sora was walking by, a caped figure stood, leaning over to see who was walking alone. The figure looked down on Sora and knew well that she was the one he was seeking.

"I've found you." He muttered quietly.

Sora looked at the road and saw a strange shadow. The shadow looked like a figure standing on the rooftop. She quickly looked over to the top of the building, but saw no one there. Nothing was there. She looked back to the shadow, but that too was gone.

_Maybe it was just my imagination._ She thought.

She continued walking and approuched a corner. As she turned the corner, she came face to face with a mask. In reaction, she gave a scream of shock.

"Shh." He whispered, "You wouldn't want anyone to find us would you?"

He grabbed Sora by her shoulder and used his other hand to cover her mouth to prevent her scream from amplifying. Sora scream muffled through the masked man's gloved hands and continued to scream as he dragged her through the streets. From the distance, someone came out of their house to wonder what the noise was about. The person came out and saw that someone was forcing a woman into an alley.

"Will you please keep silent?" The masked figure asked forcefully.

Sora pulled the hand from her mouth, "Let me go Tai!"

"Tai?" He asked, "Did you just call me Tai? My name is Xevin, not Tai."

Several police officers came to the scene in the alley. They came out of their car and hid behind the open doors, aiming their guns at the two.

"Let the woman go!" The police ordered, "Let her go or we'll shoot."

"And risk harming her?" Xevin asked them, "Go ahead."

Sora couldn't take it anymore. If this was one of Tai's tricks, she wanted it to stop. Knowing that Tai's face was behind the mask, she reached up and grabbed the mask and pulled it off. To her shock, Tai's face wasn't there. As a matter of fact, there was no face there at all. Nothing was there, no sign of skin, bone, flesh, nothing. It was just an emtpy void.

"That was not so kind of you." Xevin said. He took the mask back from Sora's hand and put it back on, "Come, we have some things to attend to." Xevin grabbed a hold of his cape and threw it over himself. The cape covered up both of them and suddenly, the cape just fell to the floor. The bodies disappeared, with only the cape left behind .

* * *

"It is with great pleasure that I congradulate these students of The College of Odaiba." The college director announced, "I wish you the best for your futures. Congradulations." 

With that the sound of confetti and streamers shot out came and everyone got up from their chairs and cheered. Several people in graduation robes of green and gold threw their hats up in joy and hugged one and other. Among those students were Tai and Izzy.

"We did it man." Tai said, "We graduated."

"Yes we did." Izzy smiled, "Its finally done."

"Tai!" Mimi ran through the crowd and jumped into Tai's arms, "You did it!

"Whoa, Mimi." Tai hugged her back in a strong embrace and the two finally parted, "Wait, what are you doing here. I thought you lived in America."

"Kari told me about your graduation ceremony. I got on the earliest flight to be here." Mimi said, "You and Izzy are my best friends. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Where's everyone else?" Izzy asked.

"They're walking with other people." Mimi said, "But Sora, Matt, TK, and Kari aren't here for some reason."

"What?" Tai asked, "Why wouldn't Kari be here?"

* * *

The fact that Kari didn't show up for Tai's graduation was what made him leave the celebration early. He was walking down the street when he came across a streetlight with something posted on it that caught his eyes. 

**Missing!**

**Name: Sora Takenouchi**

**Last sighted: Last night in an alleyway.**

A picture of Sora was also shown. This was shocking for Tai. Sora was kidnapped. Tai remembered that he swore to never protect her again, but this somehow made him regret that decision. He ran down the street, heading towards Sora's house, but that was when his cellphone went off. He stopped running and answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Tai! You gotta get here quick!" The voice on the other end of the line said.

"TK?" Tai asked, "What's wrong? Where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital!" TK said with a tone of panic, "Kari's here, she wants to see you and Davis."

"What happened to her?" Tai asked.

"I don't know. She passed out after asking me to get you and Davis." TK said, "Please hurry."

Tai hung up his cell, only wondering what the worst thing could have happened to her sister.

* * *

"Hey guys. Glad you made it." TK said, "She's been out for twenty minutes now." 

"What happened to her?" Tai asked.

"I don't know." TK answered, "No one would tell me." The look on TK's face showed that he was greatly concerned fo Kari. Though their relationship didn't last long, the two were still close.

A police officer arrived in the room. He was alone, so it didn't seem like a big problem. "Which one of you is Taichi Kamiya?" He asked.

"Uh, I am." Tai answered.

"Will you come with me?" The officer asked.

"Sure, but for what reason?" Tai asked. He tried to sound as calm as he could, hoping not to get the officer to think Tai did something wrong.

"All will be explained when you come with me." The officer answered.

As Tai followed the officer out of the room, Davis came running in. "Tai, what's going on?" He asked.

"Don't worry about me." Tai said, "Kari's in there."

* * *

"Matt? What's going on?" Tai asked. 

"Your answer's as good as mine." Matt replied.

"Please sit down." The officer came into the room, "You won't have to worry, but I do need to ask some questions."

"What's the matter?" Matt asked.

"I'm sure you must have seen the flyers." The officer said, "A friend of your, Sora Takenouchi, is missing."

"Yeah, I saw." Tai said.

"Well, we've found some evidence regarding the kidnapping." The officer said, "But first, I need to know somethings that happened before."

"Such as?" Matt asked.

The three were in discussion of what happened before she was kidnapped; where she was before she was outside, if there was anyone who could have wanted to do this, has she made any enemies for any reason. Things went smoothingly while Matt and Tai answered the questions.

"Ok, we answered all your questions." Matt said, "But what for?"

"Because it could help us track down the culprit." The officer said. He took out a portfolio of photos. They were all black and white and, but the image was very clear. Each of them showed a picture of a black caped figure with a mask on. "This is the one whose responsible."

"What?" Matt took the photos and looked at them all. Each and every one of them showed the masked figure holding onto what looked like Sora. _It can't be._ Matt looked over to Tai, but to his surprise, Tai disappeared. The door was left open and Tai was nowhere in the station.

"Why didn't you catch him?" Matt asked, "How did he get away?"

"We lost track of them when they disappeared into an alleyway." The officer replied, "Most of our forces were after another criminal. Your friend, Taichi was with the victim when I found him."

"Do have any idea how much this means to me?" Matt asked. He got up from his seat and started to pace around the small office, "This bastard kidnapped my girlfriend, and he's still out there!"

* * *

"What do you think happened to her?" Davis asked. 

"That's what I want to know." TK answered, "These goddamn doctors won't tell me anything."

A doctor walked into Kari's room for her checkup. TK and Davis approuched the doctor, demanding answers. The doctor simply ignored the two and left the room. Shortly afterwards, a police officer came into the room.

"Are you two friends of Kari Kamiya?" The officer asked.

"Yeah." TK answered, "What happened to her?"

"It seems that this clown's partner is responsible for her 'accident'." The police answered.

"Partner?" Davis asked, "Since when did the clown have a partner?" Davis knew the officer didn't mean Vestige. Only one person knows about him, but everybody must probably think he's insane for thinking about it.

"Crazy costumes, spooky entrances, they're all the same." The officer said, "We found her in an alleyway, laying in a pile of garbage. The only person around her was someone who looked like their body was covered with smoke."

"Smoke?" TK asked, "Where do these freaks come from?"

"We have are best men on the search for him." the officer said, "But with his supernatural abilities, it's going to be very difficult to find him."

* * *

Its been a whole week since news of Sora's kidnapping and Kari's encounter with a smoked menace. Tai has been avoiding Matt for the whole time, avoiding questions from him which he knew he had no answers for. With no evidence that it was Xevin who was responsible, Tai had to stay away from him. He knew Matt wouldn't expose Tai to anyone, he knew very well what Saji was capable of and what he would do to Matt is he spilled the beans on his double life, but an encounter with Matt was the last thing he needed. 

While Tai had his problems, Davis had his own. Kari was discharged from the hospital and was back in school two days ago. Avoiding her was not too easy for Davis, many of his classes are close to where Kari's class was and she would always try to find him before he ran off to get to his next class before being caught by her.

With lunchtime arriving, Davis sat at the table he usually sat in. He knew Kari was gone to tutor a freshman during lunch, so she wouldn't be a problem.

"What the hell is wrong with you Davis?"

Davis looked over to see that TK and Yolei were standing behind him. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what we're talking about." TK said. The tone of voice TK had was a serious one. He was obviously upset about something, "Do you mind explaining why you're avoiding Kari?"

"Since when would you want to stay away from her?" Yolei asked, "You would always look for the chance to be with her alone and now, she wants to be alon more than ever because she feels like shit."

"This doesn't concern any of you." Davis snapped back, "The business I have is not for you to know about, and I think I speak for Kari as well."

By now, the people who were sitting at the table near the three were staring at this loud conversation.

"As a matter of fact, Kari was the one who talked." Yolei said, "She told me you've been avoiding her and she's told me how she often cried herself to sleep because of it."

"You think I care now?" Davis asked, "Look at me! Do I _look_ like I care?!"

"Well you should." TK answered sternly, "I'm not gonna let a guy like you ruin her."

"A guy like me?" Davis asked. Davis took those words as something offensive, "Please, tell me what you meant by that."

"I expected a guy like you to talk like a man and face the issue with Kari." TK said, "But I guess I was wrong about you. You're just as wimpy as I thought when I first saw you."

"Wimpy, is it?" Davis asked, "You think I'm wimpy?"

"Yeah, what you gonna do about it?" TK asked, staring coldly to Davis' eyes.

Davis made the first move. He swung his right fist and connected it to TK's face. The hit forced TK back and Yolei gasped in shock, covering her mouth. Now everyone in the cafeteria was up from their seats to see the start of the fight.

"Come on TK, make your move." Davis motioned his hands for TK to do something.

TK move towards Davis and swung a punch of his own. Davis leaned back and the punch wizzed past his face. TK made another punch, but it also missed. Tk then made a different move; he swung his leg and kicked Davis at his side. The hit got Davis' attention away from TK and TK used this to punch him. He landed one punch to Davis' left temple, but Davis didn't move. Davis looked at TK with eyes that seemed like they were consumed by evil. He lunged at TK and tackled him to the floor. He then proceeded to land multiple punches at him. One after the other, the punches began to cut into TK's skin and blood began to come out.

"You think I'm wimpy now?!" Davis asked. He got up from TK and began to stomp on his chest with massive force, "Huh? Answer me!" He continued pounding on his chest with his feet, not stopping to give TK any mercy. "Answer me dammit!"

"Please...stop..." TK wheezed out those words as the pounding kept coming.

"Davis get off of him!" Yolei grabbed onto Davis' shoulders and pulled him off of TK, "What's wrong with you?!"

"Get off of me!" Davis struggled to break free from Yolei's grip, but she held onto him tightly.

"Alright, enough!"

The cheering from the students stopped when they heard those words. The principle of the school arrived and broke up the gathering. He looked down at TK's bleeding face and looked over to Davis' blood-covered knuckles.

"To the office." The principle ordered.

Davis yanked himself away from Yolei's grip. He walked past the principle to head to the office. As he made it past the principle, he stepped over TK, pressing his foot on his chest. Kari then ran into the cafeteria when she heard the sound of students screaming in the cafeteria, but mainly; when the student she was tutoring ran out to see what was happening. Seeing the state both TK and Davis were in, she knew well what just happened.

Davis simply looked away from her, wlaking past her, not caring about how shocked she was of his actions.

"Davis!" Kari chased after Davis as he walked down the halls. She came close enough for her to grab ahold of his hand.

"Let go of me." Davis said with a strong tone.

But Kari didn't listen, she still had her grip on his hand and didn't let go of it. "Davis will you stop to listen to me?"

"Listen to what?" Davis asked, turning around with a cold glare that pierced into Kari's heart, "About how you're pissed that I beat the hell out of TK? Or about how I'm acting like a madman? Tell me, what is there for me to listen to?"

Kari didn't know what to say, Davis wasn't acting like himself. This wasn't the Davis she knew before, he was very different. He changed, something with a dark attitude. "What's happened to you?" She asked. She slowly began to break into small tears, "You've changed. You're different"

"Maybe I did change, maybe I am different." Davis loosened Kari's grip on his hand and turned back towards the direction of the office. Kari was no longer able to talk him into being his old self again. He was changed, more cold in the heart.

As Davis continued walking, something under his shirt stood out from the rest of his clothing. His collar shirt was slightly unbuttoned at the top during his scuffle with TK. Under his shirt was something black, it seemed to hug his skin, tightly covering his chest from below the neck. Kari was right, Davis _did _change, he _was_ different.

And he liked it.

* * *

**Please send your reviews. Remember, the minimum goal is 40 reviews for the next chapter to be up. Comments on how I'm doing is greatly accepted. Criticisms, I'll also accept, but don't be too harsh.**


	8. Revenge and Pain

**Thank you to all the people who sent reviews for my story. The next chapter will be up as soon as I get a total of 60 to 70 reviews. That'll leave about 20 to 30 more as of now.

* * *

**

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Seven**

**Revenge and Pain**

(Matt's House)

Matt sat at his kitchen table, with a bottle of beer at an arm's reach away from him. His table was not filled with any sort of food, but pictures. Each picture had Saji on it. Matt looked through each picture and finally slammed his fist down on the table.

"Where the fuck are you Tai?" He asked himself, "You can't hide from me forever."

Matt got up from his seat and took the beer bottle in his hand. He walked out to the balcony of his apartment and looked out into the sky. Its been a week since Matt last saw Tai and that was at the police station. He knew Tai was the one responsible; he ran off when evidence showed that Saji was the one who kidnapped Sora. He grabbed onto the bottle tightly and in rage, he threw it. The bottle flew through the air and fell down to the streets below.

"You can't hide forever!" Matt screamed.

"_Perhaps you would like to find him?_" A dark voice said.

"Huh? Who's there?" Matt looked around, but there was no one else around him.

"_I can help you find the clown._" The voice said, "_If you're willing to cooperate._"

"Who are you?" Matt asked.

"_Don't you remember?_" The voice seemed to get closer and closer to him. Finally, Matt turned around and standin in front of him was the ghostly figure of Apoclymon.

"You." Matt ran to tackle down Apoclymon, but instead, he dove right through him.

"_Its no use._" He said, "_I'm no longer living._"

"What do you want from me?" Matt asked.

"_I want what you want._" Apoclymon said with an evil grin, "_I want Saji. Now we both know who he is under that mask. Together, we can truly end his reign._"

"Why sould I trust you?" Matt asked, "Last time I came to a truce with you, you backstabbed me."

"_But now, I have no body to betray you with._" Apoclymon said, "_Only my spirit lives on. I can offer you my powers and my assistance._"

"What's the catch?" Matt wasn't going to go for this until he knew everything of Apoclymon's plan. He wasn't going to fall for another one of his tricks again.

"_I simply want to kill Saji._" He answered, "_Through me, you can do that in my place. My powers will assist you, you will have complete control over me. This time, I will be the servant._"

This was something Matt could use. The power of Apoclymon against Saji just might be what Matt needs to stop Tai and save Sora. The power was something that could help Matt against the clown.

"I'll take it." Matt said, "But if you try to control me, I'll make sure neither of us will live after that."

"_Agreed._" Apoclymon grinned once more, "_Saji will fear the might of you._"

Apoclymon's ghostly form then charged to Matt. His body merged with Matt and the two combined into an entity that no human has ever seen. Matt's body began to increase in strength which slightly altered his size. His hair began to change from his blonde hair into a dark hellfire red color. Horns began to grow on his head that sprouted out and bent down(like Devil Jin's horns). His body then was consumed by the black sheet of darkness. People who lived in the partment around Matt could only hear him straining from the change, followed by a laugh of delight. Not a childlike laugh, an evil laugh.

* * *

A criminal was thrown to the brick wall of the alley and landed hard on the concrete floor. 

"That should teach you some point of view on how the women feel when they are assaulted." A voice said. A black caped figure slowly walked towards the fallen criminal. His mask was in clear view of the criminal's face and it frightened him.

"Alright freeze!"

Saji turned around and saw a group of police officers covering the alleyway exit and having their guns out.

"What is the meaning of this?" Saji asked.

"Just shut up and freeze!" The officers held their guns up forward, having their finger on the trigger, ready to fire.

"I'm innocent." Saji said. He raised his hands up in the air, "You have the wrong man."

As Saji slowly walked towards the officers, showing that he wasn't going to attack, the officers began to panic and in reaction, they fired. The bullets shot through the air and came towards Saji, but before they could reach him, some figure from the shadows darted past the bullets and made it to Saji before them. The figure stood in front of Saji and its bloodred eyes opened to the officers.

"Vestige." Saji said in surprise.

The bullets reached Vestige's body, but they didn't harm him. His shadow form absorbed the metal fragments and they never reached Saji. Finally, the officers were out of ammo and they lowered their weapons. Vestige changed from his shadowed form and into his three-dimensional form. He riased a fist towards the officers and opened his fist. The metal fragments of the bullets fell from his hand and fell to the ground.

"Let's get out of here." Vestige said as he turned to the clown mask.

Saji didn't need to hear that twice. Vestige went back into his shadow form and disappeared into the night. Saji pulled out two small cubes from his belt and played with them around his finger. They were dice. He tossed them towards the officers and let them roll. The dice rolled right under their feets and the faces that were shown were 'ones'.

"Snake eyes." that was all Saji whispered as smoke began to shoot out from the dice. The officers were consumed in the smoke. When it settled Saji was nowhere to be found. Only the criminal Saji was dealing with was left.

* * *

"You shouldn't be here." Tai said. He had his mask in his hand, "I can handle this business on my own." 

"Yeah, I can see that." Davis replied, "If it wasn't for me, you'd me in a coroner's lab with several bullet holes and without your mask."

"I could have gotten myself out of that." Tai said, "I've always did."

"Listen Tai, you need help. You may be cunning and desceptive, but you ain't bulletproof." Davis said, "I am."

"No your not, Apocalymon is. You're only using his powers." Tai said.

"I could say the same thing about you and your mask." Davis said, "Don't think I don't know. Once Izzy knew about my specialty, he couldn't keep his mouth shut."

"Watch what you say about him." Tai said. This was something that Tai didn't expect from Davis. Sure, Kari may have done this to Davis, but he expected him to be over it by now. nstead, Davis was acting worse than ever, and he knew it was from the cape. "You can't keep the cape. Look what its doing to you."

"Don't you think I know?" Davis asked, "I want this. I like this change. This is who I am from now on and not even Saji, The Dark Jester can stop me."

Before Tai could say anything, he heard the sound of screaming. The two dark dressed heroes looked down onto the streets and saw a smoke covered figure running into a distant alley. Tai put on his mask and straightened his hat.

"Good luck getting to him." Davis' black costume consumed his head and the red eyes opened, "I'll see you there." His cape formed into devil wings and Davis jumped off the building, gliding down to the alley.

Saji jumped off the building and followed Davis, shooting a cable from his wrists, he swung through the streets following the gliding figure. As Saji swung up and prepared to fire another cable, something hit him from the side. Saji lost his focus and began to fall, but whatever it was that hit him, grabbed him by his arms and threw him to the building wall, brekaing a dent into the brick. Saji looked up and saw a black devil flying in front of him. It wasn't Vestige, Vestige didn't look that evil. The horns on its head were the undeniable proof that it wasn't Davis. The face of the devil faded and revealed human skin. The face was of Matt.

"Matt?"

"How does it fell to be outdone?" Matt asked, "By me?"

Matt flew forward to charge at Saji, but Saji jumped up in time and dodged the hit. He scaled his way up to the top of the building and looked around for any sign of Matt. Matt flew up and came face to face with Saji.

"You brought this upon yourself Tai." Matt said, "You knew this would come."

"What are you talking about?" Saji asked.

"Don't fuck with me!" Matt yelled, "I'm not gonna let you live after what you did to Sora!"

Matt's face was covered by the devil face and flew at Saji. Saji turned to run away from him. Matt swooped down to slash at Saji with his claws, but Saji ducked in time to dodge it. Matt then slashed again and Saji bent back to dodge, but the claws caught his mask and pulled it off. The mask flew across the building and landed in the shadows.

"It wasn't me!" Tai yelled.

"Don't trick me. You can't deny it." Matt said, "And I'm gonna make you pay."

"I didn't do it!" Tai yelled, "I didn't kidnap her!"

* * *

Vestige saw the smoke covered figure hidden in the alley. The smoke pretty much gave out where he was and Vestige wasn't afraid of his appearance. He slowly hovered down to where the smoke figure was hiding and drew him out. 

"You can't hide from me." Vestige said, "You can't use shadow to hide from shadow."

"What do you want?" The figure asked.

"Well for starters, a name would be nice for me to call you by." Vestige said.

"I have none." He replied.

"Fine, I'll make one." Vestige said, "How about...**Smoke**? Simple, obvious, but easy to remember."

"I don't see a reason for this." Smoke said, "What do you want from me?"

Underneath Vestige's face, Davis mind was thinking back to the past. He remembered what happened to Kari, he rembered how he hurt her. He didn't understand why he still cared about her. He was still angry for what she did to him, but for someone like Smoke to hurt her, Davis wouldn't allow it.

"You remember what you did to a girl?" Vestige asked.

Smoke saw an oppurtunity to try and escape, but Vestige saw it. He dashed over to wear Smoke was trying to run to. Now the two were face to face.

"You remember the crime you commited?" Vestige asked.

Smoke disappeared into a cloud of smoke and tried to sneak past Vestige, but he was caught in his tracks. Vestige managed to grab ahold of his smoking essence and threw it to the wall.

"You remember the sound of her scream?" Vestige's voice was now raising up to a shout, "You remember the harm you caused her?!"

"Why do you care?" Smoke asked. He slowly backed away from Vestige, not wanting to be near him if something unexpected was to happen, "What does it matter to you anyways?"

Vestige looked back at Smoke, letting his red eyes be filled with rage. His cape slowly formed over his two arms and then extended out. The cape then sharpened at the tip and formed black blades on his arms.

"Everything!" Vestige charged at Smoke, slashing at him with all the rage he had inside him. Smoke dodged each blow with a combination of changing into his smoking form to be unharmed by the blades. The one on one fight seemed to have no winner; Vestige was the one attacking, Smoke was dodging each blow and staying defensive.

"Why does she mean that much to you?" Smoke asked.

Suddenly, Vestige stopped. Smoke's question had him thinking; why does she mean that much? She hurt him deeply, yet Davis was still willing to kill the one who harmed her. Why? Why does he still care for her?

Smoke took this chance to disappear into smoke and hovered up to the top of the building. He changed back into his human appearance and the moonlight shined on his body.

He had no shirt to cover him, only pants. The pants were black, darker than his shadow. He wore boots protected by plates of metal at the shin and the plates also protected his knees. The smoke that he was made from steamed out from his skin, fading into the sky when it went too far away from him. He wore black leather gloves to show that he had four fingers and a thumb on each hand like any normal human. But the one thing that kept his identity hidden from everyone was the mask he wore. It was made from the same metal that he wore to protect his legs. Gunmetal grey with glowing red eyes. The mask seemed to be made from seperate layers of metal. They were curved around his face to seem like he had three horns sprouting from the top of his head.  
(For a visual, the mask looks like Smoke from Mortal Kombat: Deception)

"You can't hide from me." Vestige flew up to catch him.

"Get away from me!" Smoke unleashed a large hand from his smoking body. The hand of smoke reached out and grabbed Vestige. Vestige was bound by the hand and was then thrown by it.

Vestige got his balance and hovered over the sky. He turned to where Smoke was, but he wasn't there. "You won't be so lucky next time." He muttered under his breath, "The next time we meet, I'll make sure its our last."

* * *

Tai flew into the wall of the building top. The devil of Matt flew toards him with his eyes glowing with evil. 

"Where is she?" He asked, "Where did you take Sora?"

"I don't know where she is." Tai answered, "It wasn't me."

"You dare to anger the powers of me?" He asked, "The powers that will be your end?"

"Where did you even get this power?" Tai asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" The devil face brought back Matt's. He slowly walked over to Tai. He brought his right hand up and pressed his thumb onto Tai's forehead. Images entered Tai's mind, images of a past enemy, images of a past evil.

"You." Tai opened his eyes from the images, "Apocalymon?"

"Ah, about time you found out." Matt said.

"But how? How could you let him take over you like this?" Tai asked, "I know your stronger than that."

"Your right. He did take over me." Matt said. He gave Tai a grin of evil, "I let him."

"What?!"

"He promised me complete control over my power. Knowing he would have no way of taking over my mind when I'm the one who controls this, how could I say no?" The devil wings folded up and were concealed on his back. "In return, I would get Sora back, as well as defeat you."

Tai noticed that there was something distinct down to his right. He saw that his mask was there.

"And now, its time for the clown to have his last act." Matt's face was then consumed by the blackness of the evil body. The devil face took over and charged at Tai, with his claws out.

Tai quickly dashed down and grabbed his mask. The movement dodged the blow from the Matt's claw strike. Tai quickly put on his mask and prepared for his tricks. He took out a knife and pierced it into Matt's stomach.

"Tai...how could you?" The pain forced Matt to let out the words in small breaths.

"This is nothing." Saji said, "The powers of Apocalymon will keep you alive. While you roam free with the powers of evil with you, I'll find whatever means to free you from this curse, even if I have to kill you to make that possible."

He pulled the knife out and backed away from Matt. Saji took out two dice from his belt's compartment. He tossed them at Matt and let them roll on the ground. The faces showed up with one 3 and one 4.

"Shrapnel!"

The dice exploded and with the instance of seconds Matt had, he saw the the dice exploded out several small fragments of sharp metal. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his arms, protecting it from the metal. When the small explosion settled, Matt stood there, with Saji before him. The shrapnel dice made several cuts all over his body. The cuts oozed out not bloo dthat was red, but black. Like oil, the blood came out from its cracks on the skin and dripped down onto the ground.

"Let Apocalymon's powers heal you." Saji said, "You look ridiculous with all those scars."

Matt gave Saji a look of anger before doing as he said. Apocalymon's powers closed up the wounds on his body and the black blood ceased to come.

"This isn't over Clown." Matt said, "I will get Sora back!"

He opened out his devil wings and flew out into the night sky. Saji simply looked on as he saw his friend, consumed by evil, leave.

"I know I'll save you." Saji said, "But how long will it take?"

* * *

Vestige flew in the sky, staring down on the streets with his bloodred eyes. He was going through a familiar street, this was where Kari lived. That was when he stopped, Kari. This _is_ where she lives. Vestige flew over to where Kari's apartment room was. It was pretty high up on the apartment, but that can't stop one who can fly. He looked through the window and found Kari in her room. She was sitting on her bed, hugging her legs. He couldn't see her like this, the black material on his face came off and Davis' face was there. Though it was dark, Davis could see that Kari was crying. Yolei was right. He also saw that Kari had something in her hands, a book. He wanted to see what it was, but not while Kari was still awake and crying herself out. 

Waiting under the cover of darkness, he waited for it to end. After a good hour or so of waiting, Kari finally fell asleep. Vestige slowly crept into her bedroom, using his powers of shadow. He slowly crept up her bedside, he saw that he pillow was slightly wet from her tears, so was her pants, well around the knees. Crying while she had her knees up to her face could do that. She still had the book in her hands, but because she was asleep, it wouldn't be a problem on getting it. He slowly grabbed ahold of the book and took it from her. She remained unaware of this. Vestige went back out of her room and flew to the top of the apartment. Davis face came back through the mask. He opened the book and saw that it was a photo album.

Pictures of the whole gang were in it. Yolei, TK, Ken, Cody, Kari and him. These pictures were taken during the most ridicuous moments. There was one with Yolei blushing bright red with Ken blushing much brighter. Davis remembered that day; it was the day everyone saw Yolei and Ken's first kiss.Other pictures had Cody during his Kendo tournament. Others had Davis and Ken in seperate soccer games. There were also ones TK and Kari together. Seeing TK and Kari alone in the same photo brought some sense of jealousy in his heart, but when he turned the next page, he saw that the whole two pages were just him. There were pictures of him during Ken's Christmas party, another with him in his soccer uniform, posing for the camera. Another had him in his swimming shorts, which was taken when the gang went to the beach for the summer, before school started. He turned the pages and saw that the next few pages were just about him. Davis couldn't believe it, Kari really meant that much to him.

As he turned the page, he saw one final photo. It was different from the others of himself. It was one with only him and Kari. He saw that the photo of him and the photo of Kari were taken on two different occasions. The background gave it all away, but the event was thew same. It was at the Kari's dance school party. Kari was in the white dress that she wore for that night and Davis was in his black tux, with the white tie. He remembered that the photo of Kari was taken with her standing next to TK and the one with Davis was with Ken. Davis knew what Kari did with these photos; she cut each of them in half, seperating herself from TK and Davis from Ken and sticking Kari and Davis together to make a new picture.

He couldn't believe that Kari would actually do that for him. As he closed the book and closed his eyes, a single tear fell and landed on the cover of the album.

Vestige flew back into the sky, heading back home. Back in Kari's room, the book was back in her hands. seeming as if it was untouched by anyone.

The changes Davis made when he found the cape were very dramatic changes. Kari was right, Davis _did _change, he _was_ different.

And he liked it.

But did he want it?

* * *

**That's the end of the chapter. Please review this story. I'll have the next chapter up when I get a total of at least 60 to 70 reviews. Until then, good-bye.**


	9. Control or Controlled

**Some of you may have noticed that I made some unmentioned changes to Saji. I realized that I never mentioned about them, so I'll do that now.**

**Aside from the change of appearance from the first story, Saji has some new equipment.**

**1) His shuriken have changed from simple shuriken to metal bladed cards. One storage compartment on his belt can store a total of 52. Each 'deck' also has faces on it like playing cards. On one side, it was Saji's logo, the other side has the suit and value.(Example: Ace of diamonds is engraved onto the metal card.)**

**2) He has dice that can perform certain tasks depending on its outcome. I've already shown two of them, but here is the total list. The number means what the faces equal, it doesn't matter how its done:**

**2-"Snake Eyes!"- The dice emit a smoke that consumes the area of where it is.  
3-"Flash!"-A bright light shoots out from the dice, giving Saji the chance to strike or escape.  
4-"Burn!"-The dice emit a large fire from it.  
5-"Chill!"-Liquid nitrogen fires from the dice, covering the small area in temporary ice.  
6-"Mindless!"-An unknown gas shoots out and whoever inhales it begins to hallucinate(like how Scarecrow did in Batman Begins)  
7-"Shrapnel!"-The dice explode, shooting out sharp metal fragments.  
8-"Kaboom!"-The dice simply explode, destroying the area.  
9-"Shocking!"-When this outcome occurs, one die oozes out water, while the other sends out a high voltage of electricity. The water is how the electricity reaches its target. The amount of voltage can even penetrate the insulation of rubber or wood.  
10-"Gust!"-A large blast of wind shoots out. Used for various purposes.  
11-"Chained!"-Metal chains shoot out from the dice, covered from a smokescreen. When the smoke clears, the chains wrap around the target.  
12-"Cease!" A powerful jolt of evergy shoots from the dice, causing the body of the target to be temporarily be paralyzed.**

**Because many of these dice have these outcomes, Saji no longer carries the micro detonators, nor do his glvoes emit smoke when the fingers are snapped.

* * *

**

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Eight**

**Control or Controlled**

"Ahh, go easy." Tai grunted from the pain from the stitching.

"Hey, I'm not the medical type of guy." Izzy said, "I'm the tech. advisor."

Izzy stood behind Tai, stitching up a large cut on his back. Tai sat on a wooden stool while Izzy was kneeling behind him, with the needle and thread in hand. On the table next to them were swabs of cotton with bloodstains on them as well as a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

"You know, you outta be more careful." Davis said. He was in his casual wear, the black cape was hidden in his clothing, "You could've beat the life out of him."

"I had my reasons to hold back." Tai said, "I would never do anything to hurt Matt. Would you have done it if it was Ken?"

Davis didn't have to answer that. He simply looked away form Tai in shame. Davis wouldn't have done it. The thought of him hurting Ken for whatever reason was too painful to think about.

"I don't understand how Apocalymon could still be alive." Tai said, "I thought I killed him."

"I have a solution. Its not backed up, but its a start." Izzy said, "Because Apocalymon was partially computer data, even though he took physical form, when you killed him, his human appearance was destroyed. But that lefthim with only his data, unable to take form of a living figure. And if what Matt told you was right, that he's in complete control of Apocalymon, then Matt's not the same anymore."

"OW!!" Tai screamed, "That hurt like a bitch!"

"Sorry." Izzy said. He pulled the needle from Tai's flesh and continued to stitch the cut back up, "My hand kinda slipped that time."

"You're hand _kinda_ slip? You stabbed me with the needle." Tai said., "I should've asked Joe for help."

"Well, its getting kinda late, I'm gonna head home." Davis walked off to exit the cave.

"Not so fast Davis." Tai said. Davis stopped in his tracks. "I'm gonna say it again, leave the cape here."

"No. I'm keeping it." Davis answered back. He continued to walk and left through the dark corridor of the cave's hall.

"He's got guts Tai. You have to give him that." Izzy said, "You shouldn't be doubting him."

"And you should't be encouraging him." Tai said.

"Courage is what he needs right now Tai." Izzy replied, "You of all people should know about that." Izzy snipped the small strand of thread left and the stitching on Tai's back was secured, "Besides, he hasn't killed anyone yet, nor has he blown up any computer company tower."

* * *

Xevin walked around the warehouse that he was in. What was left of the place was suitable enough for him, not too luxurious, but not too broken. 

"This will have to do." He said to himself.

He looked over to a person he had wrapped in chains and curled up on the floor. He walked over to her and kneeled down to her.

"Don't worry. There's no need for me to kill you." He said, "Well, not yet."

"What are you gonna do with me?" Sora asked.

"You're what fuels the rage inside the one who wears Saji's face." Xevin answered, "That rage is what I need from him. His rage will be his downfall and his downfall leads to his destruction. His destruction, leads to my completion."

"Your completion?" Sora had no idea what this imposter was saying.

"As long as the two of us are still roaming free in the world, we are forever half of what we truly are." Xevin said, "Once one of us is destroyed, we will be complete. Saji will be the one to fall by my hands."

* * *

School had just ended for Davis. He left the building with everything he needed in his bag. It was about time that the day was done, he didn't think it would end soon. The boring lessons, the meaningless lectures, and the pathetic teachers who probably can't even spell their own last name. It was finally over, now he just had to prepare for the next day of the same routine. 

"Davis?"

He turned around to the person who called his name. Standing behind him was none other than Kari. She seemed to have a small sense of depression in her eyes, Davis could see it.

"Uh...hi Kari." Davis said. He tried to put a small smile on his face, but something stopped him.

"Would you like to come to my place later tonight?" Kari asked, "Maybe we can talk?"

"Um, yeah. Sure, that'd be nice." Davis replied.

Kari was actually surrpised that Davis accepted her offer. After what she saw him become, she didn't think he would say 'yes' that easily. This brought a small smile on her face and Davis liked it. Seeing her smile was something he liked seeing.

* * *

"Ok, toss them again." Izzy instructed. 

Tai and Izzy were in the cave. Izzy had just made a new device for Tai's use, dice. Tai did as Izzy said, with the dice in hand, he tossed them across the cave. The dice rolled on the stoned floor and stopped, showing the faces 2 and 2.

"What now?" Tai asked.

On cue, the dice blew out a blast of flames from the holes on the faces. Tai quickly backed away from the blaring heat and light. Izzy simply stood there smiling at his success.

"Holy Shit!" Tai screamed, "That was cool."

"You can do more." Izzy said, "Each die is programmed to perform an action depending on the outcome of the roll."

"How does it work?" Tai asked, "To me, they just look like dice that have magic."

"Ok, I'll try to explain it, but you'll have to pay close attention to what I'm gonna say." Izzy said, "Each die has a device that is activated by gravity. When it stops rolling, the gravitational pull forces it down, thus, its activation occurs. Before it does that though, it uses a micro radar I put in to search for the nearest die and see what its outcome is. That's how it knows which action to perform."

"I think I understood it." Tai said, "But how will I know which one to use? I'm gonna need to know which function it'll be, cause I can't rely on its randomness."

"I could always make them loaded dice." Izzy said, "The last time you used them were just lucky rolls, but I could make sure you get the outcome you need."

"How long will it take?" Tai asked.

"Give me about two more weeks." Izzy said, "Until then, go out there and see what you can do about your clone and Matt."

"Hey guys." Davis came running into the cave. "Sorry I'm late."

"No worries." Izzy said, "I just finished up with Tai's stuff."

"What did you want to show me?" Davis said, "You said it would be useful to me."

"It will be." Izzy went to his workplace and came back out with a belt. The belt was all metal, similar to the belt Saji wore, but it had no storage compartments. The other difference was that the buckle was fairly larger than Saji's belt buckle.

"Looks very cool, but what is it?" Davis asked.

"Put it on and test it out." Izzy gave the belt to Davis.

He strapped the belt into place and locked it in. "How do you work this thing?" He asked, "You know I don't know how to work electronics without instructions."

"There's a device on the buckle." Izzy said, "You twist it clockwise to open the compartment inside it."

Davis did as instructed. He twisted the buckle and when he did, the compartment opened. He then felt like something was being stripped off of him. The belt then locked back into place, twisting on its own to close the storage. "What just happened?" Davis looked around him to see if anything changed, "Did I like lose my underwear to this thing?"

"The cape is now stored into the belt." Izzy said, "All you have to do is activate it again to get it back. No more worries of losing your clothes to get into your costume."

"I can't belive you're doing this for him." Tai said, "Have you forgotten that he's using Apocalymon's cape?"

"Davis has made many miracles before." Izzy said, "I think he can make one with this."

* * *

The sun was setting in Odaiba and Davis was on his way to Kari's place. He had no clue as to what was going to happen there, but he hoped for the best. Taking the elevator to the floor where Kari's apartment room was, he approuched the door. 

He knocked.

The door opened and standing on the other side of the door was Kari. She was dressed in a pair of shorts that practically hugged her. Her tank top was pick with abstract designs on it made in a gold glitter.

"Hi Davis." Kari smiled, "Glad you could make it. The pizza's gonna be here soon."

"Uh...pizza?" Davis gave her a confused look. _What pizza? She never said anything about this._

It seemed like a mere few seconds to him, when in reality its been a good hour. He eventually found himself on Kari's couch with her sitting right next to him, leaning on him while the two were watching a movie with whatever was left of the pizza she had ordered.

_I can't bel\ieve this. This is the moment I've been waiting for, and Kari was the one who made the move._

"Kari?" Davis softly called her name.

"Yeah Davis?" She replied.

"You said we could maybe talk. What did you want to talk about?" Davis asked.

"Well..." Kari got up from having her head resting on his shoulder and looked over to him, "I remember that I said some things that really hurt you a while ago. I never thought it would hurt you that much, but now I do."

"Kari, its.."

"No its not alright." Kari interrupted him, "You've been trying to ask me out so many times and I've always put you down, not knowing how much I could've hurt you."

"What are you trying to say?" Davis asked.

The two had their eyes meet. The feeling Davis had from this was something he never felt before. The day when he first met Kari, he had a feeling similar to this, but the feeling he had now was much more incredible.

"I'm trying to say that..." Kari couldn't get the words out. The two slowly came closer, their eyes still connected. She slowly brought her hands up to carress Davis' cheeks. The two closed their eyes and came closer to bringing their lips together.

"Wait." Davis backed away from the approuch. Davis softly grabbed ahold of Kari's hands and brought them off of his cheeks.

"What's wrong?" Kari asked.

"I can't do this." Davis said, "This is too sudden."

Kari eyes were slowly starting to go red as small traces of tears began to fill them. "How can you keep doing this to me?" Her voice was starting to break slowly, "I thought this was what you wanted."

"It _is_ what I wanted." Davis answered, "But after everything that happened, I can't simply forget about it." The memories of what happened that unfortunate afternoon still burned into his mind.

* * *

_"Hey Kari!" Davis called out._

_Kari looked over to see that Davis had called her, "Hey Davis."_

_"How are you feeling?" Davis asked, "Are you better?"_

_"Oh yeah." Kari answered, remembering what happened to her last night, "Thank you so much for helping me that night."_

_"Don't mention it." Davis said, "But um...that wasn't the real reason why I'm here."_

_"Then what is it?" Kari asked._

_"Um...well...I was actually wondering if you were free tonight." Davis stuttered the words out, "I thought the two of us could go see a..."_

_"Davis, what are you doing?" Kari asked, stopping Davis from continuing._

_"What do you mean?" Davis asked a question back._

_"How many times do you have to do this?" Kari asked, "Just because you helped me home, took care of me for the night, you think I would date you in return?"_

_"I thought you took an interest in me." Davis said, "At the party, you never danced with me before. Well, not willingly."_

_"I was just being nice." Kari said, "You had a soccer victory, big deal. That doesn't mean I want to date you."_

_"But Kari..."_

_"No buts." Kari said with a stern voice. "When will you give up Davis?" Kari asked him. She gave him a straight face, showing him that she was serious of what she was saying, "I'm not intersted, and I don't ever plan to."_

_Davis was shocked by those words. Kari had just taken him to a level that brought down Davis hard. He felt like he was down at the bottom of a hole, to high to jump out of and to steep to climb up. He felt horrible inside._

_"I gotta go." Kari got into her car and started the engine, "Think about what I said." Kari drove out of the parking lot and onto the road, heading home._

_Davis simply stood there not able to move, or recover from what had just been said to him. He didn't even look over to Kari's car as it drove off, he simply stood there, as if he wasn't even alive._

* * *

"I know its been so long since then, but I won't be able to forget something like that." Davis said, "The pain was too much for me to take at day." 

"I don't understand. You've wanted to be with me for so long." Kari says with a hurt tone, "Now, all of a sudden, you're not interested in me. You really want me out of your life?"

"I..." Davis didn't know how else to say this. The pain Kari gave him went into his heart deeply. Without her around, the pain would possibly leave with her, but the thought of not having her around was something Davis never thought about. But this pain was too much for him to take in. What does he want? End this pain with another or keep it? Why does he have to live with pain his life? With a deep breath taken in, he released the words, "I..."

From the balcony of Kari's apartment, a cloud of smoke gathered and forced itself at the glass wall. The pressure of the smoke cracked through the glass and finally shattered the wall, allowing the smoke to enter. Scattered across the floor near the balcony was the smoke. The smoke collected itself and took form of a person, with a mask that had red eyes.

"Oh my god." Kari looked in shock of the intruder, "Its him."

"I'm glad you still remember me." Smoke replied. The mask was unable to show the mocking smile on his face, "I came back for more of the pleasure. Maybe if you don't strugle this time, you won't get hurt as much as before."

"You did this to her?" Davis asked. Clearly, Davis couldn't let either of them know about Vestige and Davis being the same person.

"I can see you already replaced me." Smoke said, "I'm so hurt, but that doesn't mean I won't give up."

Smoke shot out a blast of smoke that smashed into Davis. He flew back and slammed into the wall behind him, falling down onto his face.

"Davis!" Kari wanted to run over to Davis, but staring at Smoke practically paralyzed her into place. She then began to feel that something was crawling up to her. She looked down and saw that a stream of smoke had surrounded her and she felt herself being lifted off the floor. The shocking moment forced her to scream.

Smoke brought her closer to him and the two exited through the way he came in, hovering out into the night.

Davis got up from the hit and saw that Smoke had took off with her. "No!" Davis ran out to the balcony and saw Smoke carrying Kari off into the sky. He looked around the place, no one was in the room, so he thought it was the best place. He reached for his belt and twisted the buckle. The buckle opened and the cape oozed out from it and consumed Davis' body. Davis was no longer there, but now, Vestige was. He jumped out off the balcony. His cape flowed from the wind that was made from his fall. The cape then changed into his wings and flew rose up into the sky and followed Smoke.

* * *

"If you keep struggling, I may lose grip of you." Smoke said, "We'll land shortly." 

"Leave me alone!" Kari screamed, "Let me go!"

From behind, a rocket of black shot towards the two. The red eyes glared forward to its target. Vestige came closer and closer to Smoke, flapping his black wings to keep him rising up from below.

"Let her go!" Vestige called out.

"Try and make me." Smoke replied. He shot out a blast of smoke at Vestige, but missed.

Vestige flew closer to the target, almost an arm's reach of Kari, but was still unable to reach her unless he wanted to risk dropping her. The three came close to the main area of the city. It was night, but the streets of Odaiba were still filled with people heading home from whatever they were doing. As the three came closer to building, Vestige flew lower and came under Smoke. Vestige continued to fly towards the building and simply sank into the wall. Smoke stopped in his tracks after seeing Vestige disappear into the wall, but when he looked forward to the building, Vestige emerged in front of him and landed a swift punch at him. Smoke released his grip on Kari and she fell down to the ground below.

"Kari!" Vestige dived down, clsing his wings to make his fall faster. He reached out his arms and grabbed onto Kari's hands. His wings explanded and the fall became slower. They continued to fall, but the speed of the fall was less than before.

Kari had her eyes closed as she felt herself descending, but then she felt something. She felt her feet on something solid. She opened her eyes and saw that she was now in the streets. People around her were staring, but not at her. They were looking at the black figure with wings that had just saved her.

"You'd do better not being sidewalk painting." Vestige said, "Now get out of here. Its not safe."

From above Vestige a cloud of smoke hovered above him and slowly took form.

"Look out!" Kari pointed to the smoke cloud above him.

The smoke took form of a human figure. Smoke grabbed ahold of Vestige and the two shot up into the sky. Smoke threw Vestige up and the two prepared for combat.

"Why do these things happen to me?" Smoke asked, "Why?"

"Because what you're doing is just plain wrong and sickening." Vestige replied, "I'm gonna make sure you never do these sick things again."

The two hovered down to the roof of the building below them. They stood facing eachother, standing straight up, motionless. Their eyes were staring at eachother, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Smoke struck first. With his smoke, he ripped out a giant chunk of rubble from the building floor and tossed it at Vestige. Vestige brought his arms up to his face, crossing them. The cape wrapped around his arms and formed a large circular shield. The large rubble hit the shield, but shattered on contact. Vestige ran through the dust and charged at Smoke. Black blades were on his arms instead of hands. Vestige slashed at Smoke, but the smoke that made his body was unharmed by the attacks. With each slash that was made, Smoke took form of a smoke cloud and changed back after.

"Give up." Smoke said, "You can't beat me like this."

Vestige wasn't about to give up. His fingers produced small knives from the tips. He threw them one by one at Smoke, but they weren't any better. They simply went right through him and hit the wall behind him. As each blade impacted on the concrete wall, they instanty disappeared into the shadow. One of the knives hit a cable that was in the room without the roof, since Smoke tore the roof out when he threw it at Vestige.

"Face it. You're pathetic." Smoke said, "You can't kill what you can't touch."

The damaged cable from the knife began to spark slightly. Vestige looked behind Smoke and saw that spark. He then looked in between the celing and the roof and saw a pipe that was broken. Something was coming out of the pipe. It looked dangerous, only because it was. That 'something' was flammable gas. Beneath the mask, Davis smiled.

He charged at Smoke. Running towards him, he jumped and dived at him, but instead of landning on Smoke, he landed on the ground in front of him, sinking into the ground. Smoked looked around, but couldn't see where Vestige was, the darkness of the night made it too difficult to find him. Vestige slowly rose up from the ground behind Smoke.

"Surprise." He whispered with a tone of evil. He grabbed Smoke by the neck and squeezed with the strength in him, "What's wrong? Can't you disappear into smoke?"

"Let...me...go..." Smoke wheezed out the words.

Vestige was now facing Smoke at his face. "You've done enough damage to this place. I think its time to go to the afterlife."

He carried Smoke to the broken pipe that had the gas coming from it.

"What are you doing?" Smoke asked. He realized that something was entering his body of smoke, it was different than the smoke he had. "No wait. Stop!"

"Not yet." Vestige said, "This isn't enough." From where the cable was, the spark came in contact with the gas and a giant flame of destruction was produced.

Smoke looked back and saw a large body of flames coming towards him, but because his body was made of smoke, the flammable gas trapped him. The fire consumed Smoke, but Vestige was too far from the blast. His hands were out, since he was grabbing onto Smoke, but the flame got to his hands and singed him. Vestige dropped down to his knees from the burn and looked at his hands. His skin wasn't harmed, but the material was burned away from the hand. From the wrists, the black material covered the skin, putting things back to normal. His hands were covered by the black material, as if they weren't burnt off to begin with.

_What's happened to you? You've changed._ Those words began to pierce Vestige's mind. He grabbed his head and tried to make the voice go away. "Stop!" The voice continued to come, repeating on and on, torturing his mind. Finally, the voice stopped. Vestige was now alone with no other voice.

"What have I done." Vestige looked at the clearing and saw that Smoke was no longer there. Vestige got back on his feet and slowly walked to the charred floor.

Davis finally realized it. Tai was right; the cape was too much for him. Kari was right; he changed, changed for the worst. "I _am _different." He brought his hands to the back of his neck and grabbed ahold of the black material that covered his body. He began to rip the cape off, but the pressure of wanting to be removed from it quickly gave Davis a lack of focus. He went too far over the edge and fell into the charred room. He landed with a hard thud, but it didn't stop him. He continued to try and rip the cape off of him. "Let me out!"

The cape slowly began to come off of Davis' skin. The red eyes were no longer on him, but on the portion of the cape that was ripped off. The torso was free of the cape, but his legs were still trapped. Grabbing ahold of the cape, he kept ripping it off. finally, the cape was free from him and Davis was left with his casual clothes.

The cape wasn't ready to give up. It slowly floated up and and took form of Vestige, only this time it had no host.

"Look what you've done to me!" Davis yelled, "You did this to me!"

Vestige produced the signature blades from its hands and attempted to slash at Davis, but Davis didged each blow. Vestige then landed a kick at Davis' face and he flew to the wall behind him with a large impact. Davis got up from the floor and approuched Vestige. "You can't survive without me! Without me, you're nothing. You became what you are because of me!" Davis wasn't going to back down from this. After what he went through because of Vestige, he was going to give it what it deserved. "I'm in control of you! You kill me, Vestige is no more."

Vestige slowly approuched Davis. His hands were out, ready to embrace Davis, but he backed away.

"No! I won't let you control me!" Davis backed himself to the wall behind him, but what he didn't see was that he was backing up to a broken window. He lost his balance and fell through the opening and down to the streets below. _So, this is how my life ends._ Davis closed his eyes, prepared for the impact and death, but it never came. Davis opened his eyes and found himself in the arms of Vestige.

Vestige flew back up and into the room that Davis had just fallen from. He put Davis down gently and backed away from him.

"Why did you save me?" Davis asked.

Vestige was unable to speak any words. It simply showed a sign of discomfort of being alone.

"I see." Davis muttered, "You need me and I need you, but if you control me it'll kill me. That'll also kill you too. You understand?"

Vestige's only reply was to give out his hand for a handshake.

"Right." Davis smiled, "As one."

Davis took the hand and the two bonded once more. Vestige's body dropped back into its cape form. The cape then wrapped itself around Davis, covering him with the familiar costume. The belt was all that wasn't changed by the cape. Vestige jumped up to the roof of the building, his cape flowing with the air. He landed with a graceful step and looked down at the people below. "Make way for the new and improved Vestige." His red eyes staed down below, but then they closed. For the first time ever, Vestige had closed his eyes. When he opened them, something changed about him. He no longer had the presence of evil in him.

His eyes no longer glowed red with vengeance.

They glowed green with justice.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. Thank you all for the reviews you posted. I understand that some of you aren't too fond of my plan of updating the story after certain number of reviews. I just wanted to know if there were many people reading this. As of now, my updates are no longer determined by reviews. Once I finish a chapter I'll have it up.**


	10. The Fire of Desire

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Nine**

**The Fire of Desire**

Kari was walking alone down the streets of Odaiba, heading towards her home. It was far, but she had nowhere else to go. Tai would've have been a good idea, but it was on the other side of where she was, considering that was the direction of where Tai's college was, before graduating from there. She was in her nightwear; a pink tanktop and tight shorts that showed alot of her legs. She was stupid enough to walk in the nighttime street like this, not covering up with something, but she was even more stupid to not wait where she was for police to come. As Kari was walking past a drug store, there was a heavy-coated teenager that appeared from the shadows of the area and grabbed her.

"Hey gorgious." He said. He took his tongue out and licked Kari's cheek, to which she recoiled, "You taste good."

"Let go of me!" Kari tried to break free but the grip on her was too strong for her.

The thug began to travel his hands all around her body. He brought one hand down and began to rub her between her legs, and his other hand was on her left breast, massage it roughly.

"Get of of me!" Kari stepped on his foot and thrusted her head back and hit his face. The impact gave Kari a chance to break free and run off.

"You bitch!" He pulled out a handgun from his coat pocket and ran after her, "When I get you I'm gonna fuck you and kill you!"

Kari was now scared. She came towards the end of the block and turned the corner. She looked over her shoulders to see if the thug was still following her, which he was. When she turned around, the last thing she saw was a sheet of black.

The thug came running down the same path Kari was running through. "You better be scared! You better..." When he turned the corner he came face to face with a figure in black that had a cape. His green eyes brought fear into his heart.

"Looking for someone?" He asked. He brought his arms out as if he was going to hug him, but instead, his cape flared out spread.

People around this area only remember hearing the sound of a boy screaming in terror and then silence.

* * *

The thug was on the ground, curled up and shaking. He constantly muttered the words; "Dark...so dark...so dark." 

Vestige walked over to a cluster of garbage cans. He grabbed the one on top and lifted it out, showing that Kari was hiding in a fort made by the cans.

"Are you alright?" Vestige asked. He offered his hand to help Kari out.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kari took the hand and Vestige helped her out from the trash, "Thanks to you...again."

"Well, I was around. That's all." Vestige replied with a somewhat happy tone.

Kari looked behind Vestige and saw that the thug was curled up and shaken. "What did you do to him?"

"I scared him with darkness." Vestige said, "Its one of my tactics."

"What, you don't kill them?" Kari asked, giving a sarcastic smile.

"Naw, too dirty for the hands." Vestige replied. He did have much time to enjoy the moment. Memories of what happened to Smoke entered his mind. Other than that, the sound of police cars were coming close. "Would you like a escort home?"

"Um sure, but the police are right..." Kari then felt the strong arms of Vestige wrap around her waist as she saw her feet leave the ground. She looked in the direction of Vestige's eyesigt and saw that the two were flying, well, he was. "Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod."

"Stay calm." Vestige said, "I'll take you home."

"My home's been trashed." Kari said, "Do you mind taking me to my brothers?"

"You sure you want to trust me with where he lives?" Vestige asked. He suddenly stopped flying and hovered in the sky, still holding onto Kari. Not wanting to fall, Kari held him back.

"I don't know. Somehow, I feel like I can trust you." Kari said.

"Alright." Vestige said, "Where is it?"

* * *

Vestige brought Kari down on solid ground in front of Tai's home. It was very late at night and no one was awake. 

"Thanks." Kari said, "I'm really grateful for what you did."

"I'm just doing my part in this world." Vestige replied.

"I want to see your face." Those words blurted out of Kari's lips. Even she didn't know why she said that.

"Excuse me?" Vestige asked, "Um...I have this costume on for a reason."

"Don't you trust me?" Kari asked, "I trusted you."

"I know you do, but you have to understand why I can't let you know who I am." Vestige said, "Its all a part of the whole hero 'thing'."

"Then can I at least have a name?" Kari asked, "I don't even know that."

"My name's Vestige." He replied, "Vestige the Shadowveil."

"You saved me twice. I think you deserve something for that." Kari slowly approuched Vestige. She brought her hands up and touched his face, but didn't see any way of removing the mask to ncover his lips.

Inside, Davis was tormented with choice. Should he let her? He wasn't able to let it happen as Davis,. why should he let it happen as Vestige? It just seemed wrong, but at the same time, he wanted it. He blew his chance before, what difference would i make of blowing this? He wanted to avoid this, but something inside Davis took over.

His mask slowly uncovered his mouth and his cheeks. Kari held his cheeks and brought her head to his, making contact with his lips. Vestige brought his arms and wrapped them around her, holding her with firm grip and gentleness at the same time. Kari brought her arms to wrap around him. The two slowly parted. Vestige brought his right hand and tossed away a small bunch of her hair that covered her face. Kari rested her hand on his face, his human skin face. The two stared into eachother's eyes and met their lips again. Vestige's cape took form of his devil wings and the two ascended up towards the sky.

Then something happened to him, another change took place. His devil wings began to change in appearance; from black devil wings that brought out the evil of darkness, it changed into black angel wings. The cape produced the details of the many feathers on the wings and the graceful texture of its structure. The two then slowly descended back onto the ground and the wings wrapped around them both.

* * *

Saji was alone in his cave. There were no lights on expect for a large fire that gave enough light for him. He stood before the fire, staring into its dancing sheets of bright colors. 

_Jester of the Night,  
you know I have done no wrong.  
The evil inside has never taken toll._

Saji looked up to the ceiling of the cave, the fires began to take form of Saji's face, laughing at him as if he was lying.

_Jester of the Night,  
You know I am much purer than  
the horrid, criminal infested soul._

The laughing continued to come. The dancinf flurries of the fire waved more viciously.

_Then tell me, Clown,  
why I see her in my mind.  
Why her face burns in my soul._

Saji began to see images of Sora in her mind. This was it. This was the desire. Not the desire of Saji, but the desire of Tai. This was what he desired. He wanted Sora.

_I feel her, I see her.  
Branded in my tortured head.  
Its blazing in me out of all control._

The fire then shot out and began to wrap around Saji. The flames werearound him, but it didn't harm him. The flames were around him like a swarm of snakes readyto constrict its prey. Preparing for the right oppurtunity.

_Like fire!  
Hellfire!_

The flames that surrounded hiom began to take form of flaming skeltons that floated around him, growling at him as they spun around him.  
_This fire in my skin.  
This burning desire,  
Is killing from within._

Saji dropped to his knees as the flames spread furthur away from him. The flaming skeletons then took form of hooded figures, still burning from the fires that created them.

_Why has this come?_

Saji looked around at the flaming figures as they stared athim with their unseen faces.

_Why torment me?_

_Why does she show,  
so clearly for me to see?_

_Why has this come?_

_Why all this pain?_

_Why has she appeared,  
in the corners of my brain?_

The hooded figures took form of its original nothingness of fire. The flames spun arond Saji like a vortex of inferno. Saji still stood unharmed by this flame.

_Jester of the Night,  
don't let her stray me from my path.  
Don't let her send me to where they burn my bones._

From the spining walls of fire, the flaming figure of Sora walked through the wall and approuched Saji. Saji slowly backed away, but she continued to approuch him.

_Destroy these painful pictures,  
Erase her from my tortures mind.  
Then maybe she'll at last leave me alone._

"Tai?" A voice came from the entrance/axit of the cave. At this instant, the fires faded and all that was left was the fire from the pile of chared wood. It was Davis.

Saji quickly took off his mask, "What is it?" Tai asked.

"Kari's in your place." Davis replied, "Her place got trashed by Smoke."

"What?!" Tai stood up. Smoke had the nerves to attack her? "But how did he... Never mind." Tai ran his fingers through his hair, brushing it off to get some air into his head. "I'll see her later."

"Alright then." Davis left the cave, heading out the same way that he came through, which was the secret pathway from outside Tai's house.

Tai slowly placed the mask back onto his face. The mind of Saji took control yet again.

_Hellfire!  
Dark fire!  
Please end these thoughts of her._

_Please end this,  
desire.  
End it and let it BURN!_

Saji fell back on his knees, but this time, the flames faded completely. Saji then fell forward and landed on his front, laying on the ground, motionless. He was at peace for now, but it wasn't going to last forever. Saji couldn't help him end these desireable thoughts, only Tai could do something about it.

* * *

**Sorry for making this chapter short, but I needed it to be, cuz I couldn't put the next scene into it. It would just ruin the vibe of the chapter.**


	11. Searching

**Guess who's back? I know its been a long time, but here's the update.**

**

* * *

**

The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity

**Chapter Ten**

**Searching**

The area was surrounded by the yellow tapes that always read; 'Do Not Cross'. Police have arrived an few hours after the explosion that occured on the rooftop of this building. The charred hole that was left there was surrounded by the yellow tape. It was now nearing dawn and there were no police officers around. From within the burnt room that was below, the sound of a deep moaning was heard. The moaning grew louder and louder until something emerged from within. Small clouds of smoke began to emerge from the surroundings and gather at one point. The gathering of the smoke took form of a human figure and began to move like one. The smoke finally assumed the form of a human.

"I'm alive." He sighed in relief, "I'm alive!"

* * *

Tai sat on the sofa in his living room as he had a cup of coffee on the coffee table, half-empty. He was holding the newspaper in his hands. 

"Tai?" A female voice came into the room.

Tai looked over and saw Kari walking into the living room. He tossed the newspaper on the table and got up.

"Kari. How are you?" Tai asked, "You sleep well?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kari said, "Thanks for letting me stay here."

"What's a big brother for?" Tai asked, "After what happened to you, I couldn't let you out of my sight."

Kari looked over to the table and saw that the papers was opened to a section that involved Sora's kidnapping and how she hasn't been found yet.

"You worried about her?" Kari asked.

Tai looked over to the table and saw that Kari noticed the news. "What? No. I was just seeing what was new in the world."

"Tai, how could you be like this?" Kari asked, "First, you were obsessed with Sora, wanting to be with her and loving th fact that she wanted to be with you, but when Matt entered her life, you began to feel tormented and now you suddenly hate her."

"Its complicated." Tai replied, "If you knew what I go through, you'd understand why things are like this."

"Whatever." Kari said, "I gotta get to my dance classes."

Kari turned to leave the living room as Tai went back to his sofa and sat down.

"I know you still love her Tai." Kari said.

Tai didn't respond to that as she left the front door and headed out. Tai slugged on the sofa as he began to think over those words.

_I know you still love her._

Does he? Does he really still love her? If he does, then why is he like this? If he doesn't, then why does she appear in his mind? He looked back into the photo of sora that was in the newspaper and he began to have flashbacks.

(Flashback)

_"Can you believe it? We're finally getting out of the eighth grade and moving on to highschool." Sora said happily._

_"I know." Tai smiled, "I feel like a man already."_

_The two of them were walking down the sunny sidewalk as they were heading home. The sky was clear of clouds and there was a soothing breeze that kept the temperature down from the sunlight._

_"Thanks for walking me home Tai." Sora said._

_"No problem." Tai replied._

_"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Sora turned to open the door to her house._

_"Wait, Sora." Tai blurted._

_Sora turned back to him. "Yeah?"_

_"Um...I...was...wondering." Tai brought the words out slowly as he fidgetted with his fingers, "Will you go to the grad dance with me?"_

_Sora's face blushed red like a rose._

_"Of course." Sora said, smiling, "I'd love to."_

(End of Flashback)

(Flashback)

_Tai slept on the hospital bed as he had a large machine next to him that had wires going into him._

_"Is he going to be alright?" Tai's mom asked._

_"He'll be fine." The doctor said, "The impact of his head to the soccer goal post caused his unconciousness. The landing broke his right leg and dislocated his right elbow. He'll be fully healed from it in two weeks, but he won't be concious until threeUntil that time, he'll be able to know whats happening in his surroundings, but won't be able to make any sort of contact with it."_

_"Its ok Mrs. Kamiya." Sora held her gently, comforting her from the news, "You heard him, Tai will be alright."_

_(Three weeks later)_

_Tai slowly opened his eyes. He found himself on a hospital bed. The wires that were on his were no longer there and the casts that he wore were removed. He looked over to his bedside and saw that someone was there. Sora sat by his bed, sitting on a chair and sleeping. Her head was resting on the bed with her arms as a pillow. Her hands were holding onto his left hand. Tai saw that she was cold so he removed his blanket and put it over her._

(End of Flashback)

Tai snapped out of his trance and came to realization.

"I do still love her."

Tai ran to his basement and opened the secret door that led to his cave. He took a backpack and stuffed all his equipment inot it as well as his costume. He then exited the cave through the second opening and came out from a fake tree in the middle of a park. From there, Tai found a motorcycle that was parked to the curb. He got on the bike and pulled out one of his telescoping knives. Stabbing it into the keyhole, the engine started. He drove off from the curb and went at highspeed through the streets.

"I'm gonna find you Sora." Tai said, "I don't care if it takes me until night or further, I'll find you."

* * *

"Where is he?" He muttered as he flew through the night sky. 

Matt was still on the search for Sora and Tai. No matter who he found first, he'd get Sora back in the end. He was going to search the entire night if he has to, he wasn't going to stop until he found Sora.

* * *

Saji was still on the road with the bike, driving down the streets, searching for any hope of finding Sora. His mission was short lived by the sound of sirens coming from behind. 

**Saji. Pull over and come out with your hands over your head.**

"Might as well play their game." Saji hit the brakes and got off the bike. The police arrived on the scene and they all raised their guns at him.

"We're tired of chasing you around." The police said, "Why don't you turn yourself in?"

"For the last time. I'm innocent." Saji replied. He reached into his belt and pulled out four dice. "I'm not going down without a fight."

He threw two of the the dice towards the officers and let the outcome roll; a 1 and a 3. "**Flash**!" The dice exploded, but instead of a detonating explosion, the dice emitted a bright burst of light. The police officers all covered their eyes from the blinding light, giving Saji the moment of escape. With the other two dice, he dropped them down under his feet. The outcome came with a 4 and a 6. "**Gust**!" The dice began to shoot out a large whirl of wind. Saji grabbed ahold of the ends of his cape and let the wind blow into it. The force pulled Saji up and into the sky, but he wasn't looking to fly. As he came high up to the roof of the building to his left, he dived down and landed on top. The police were now clueless as to where Saji went.

"Now, back to my search." Saji jumped across the rooftops, running around while he stayed hidden from the people below. "Where would she be?"

* * *

The night sky has had more than enough unnatural beings. This was one of them. A demonic figure soared the night sky as the eyes searched the ground below. 

"Where could she be?" He asked, "Where could Saji have taken her?"

_Perhaps you should think of the obvious places she could be._

"Don't talk smart with me." Matt growled, "Don't forget, I'm in control of you."

_Pay attention to where you're going boy. Look who decided to join us._

Matt looked below and noticed a caped figure jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He knew fully well who it was. "Found you." He dived down and came towards the jumping figure at high velocity. "Surprise, surprise!"

Saji looked up to see what it was that said those words, but before he could react, two demonic arms grabbed onto his shoulders and pulled him up. The demon turned Saji around to see his face. He then grabbed him by the throat and began to punch Saji's chest repeatedly.

"I know it was you!" Matt screamed, "You can't lie to me Tai!"

"Let me go!" Saji reached for his belt with his right hand and took out one bladed card. He took it between his index and middle finger. He thrusted the card and sliced the demon at the wrist.

The slash forced Matt to release his grip of Saji, but by now, the two were high into the sky and Saji was in for a fall. Saji began to descend and come closer to the ground below, but he was planning for this. He shot out a cable from his glove and it latched onto the corner of the building near him. The cable spun Saji at an angle and he was in the alleyway between two buildings. As he came closer to the wall in front of him from the spin, the blades from the tip of his boots portruded out and pierced right through the brick wall. Saji immedietly pulled out two knives and stabbed into the wall and used them to climb up, using the blades on his boots for additional support.

"I don't have time for this." Saji muttered to himself. He strained as he pulled himself up to the rooftop, not wanting to fall and having to start from the bottom. He finally made it to the top and he sheathed the blades and daggers. "I need to find Sora."

Staying as low as possible, he avoided sight from Matt, but he knew that he couldn't elude him for long. He made his way across the rooftops, until he came to a location that had a clear view of Odaiba.

"Of course." Ahead of him, in the horizon, the place of haunted memories was in his view. The warehouse. "Of all places to not look." He ran fast as he could, jumping over the rooftops and staying in the shadows.

"You think you can hide from me!?" Matt appeared ahead of him, wings expanded, and blocking Saji's path.

"Out of my way!" Saji unsheathed two of his swords and aimed them at Matt, "You can't stop me."

Matt dove in and prepared to strike Saji. Saji sliced through Matt, but he dodged each slash as if they were coming at him in slow speed, his agility was incredibly fast. Matttook the oppurtunity of his speed to grab Saji by his wrists. He pulled Saji up and began to spin around.

"Ever wanted to fly?" Matt asked, "Well now, here's your chance." He spun faster and faster, until he released his grip on Saji and he was sent soaring through the sky. "Enjoy the landing."

"Enjoy the **burn**." Saji said as he was flying through the sky, cutting the air like a hot nkife through butter.

Matt then noticed that something was on his shoulder, another was on his other shoulder. Dice. The numbers were two and two. _Sneaky bastard._ The dice exploded and fire engulfed him. _Lucky for me, the burn doesn't urt until after 100 degrees._ The fires continued to cover him, from below, people could see a giant ball of flame in the sky. _Well, maybe less._ Matt then screamed in pain from the fires._ That son of a bitch._ He darted through the sky. The high speed and pressure of the wind doused out the flames and he was now burnted to a crisp.

Saji still soared through the sky, he knew he had a way out from falling to his death. With the few seconds he had in the air, he was smart enough to sheathe the two swords back in place. What he didn't expect was meeting with _him_ again.

"Miss me?" Matt grabbed Saji by the foot and began to swing him around. The two were still around some buildings. Matt began to slam Saji onto the walls of the buildings. "How do you like that?" The burns on Matt were now fully healed, but he was still bent on revenge.

Tai was now being in brutal pain. Matt was slamming him against brick walls. He was lucky the bricks broke before he did. Matt pulled him up and grabbed him by the throat.

"I'm gonna make sure you die and never see another sunrise." Matt hissed, "This is the end of your act clown."

"How about a riddle before I go?" Saji asked, straining the words out.

**I'm a word that appears when war is around.**

**I cause much destruction, with a powerful sound.**

**I'm incased in many sizes, big and small.**

**Different shapes for different purposes, I'm one in all.**

**What am I?**

"I don't have time for your shit!" Matt yelled, "Don't play with me!"

"Very well." Saji struggled the voice.

**The word is used to signal a great doom.**

**What word am I? I'm the word,**

**'Kaboom'.**

Saji held two dice in his hand. Matt looked down and saw them as well. The faces were a five and three. In a flash, the two dice exploded and the two were flying in opposite directions from the force. Matt made it out with heavy wounds, that already began to heal. Saji flew from the force, but smehow made it without a single sign of damage. Saji didn't have time to look at where he was going, but something struck him from behind. He saw that fragments of glass were around him. He must have broken through a window. He landed on his back, but luckily, he landed on something that cushioned his fall.

"Lucky me." Saji saw that he landed on a bundle of rope that was scattered around the floor.

He got up to dust himself off, but he then noticed the sound of something moaning. He looked over to the sound and saw something in the dark corner. "Sora!"

He ran over to her side, but Sora quickly tried to scurry off, "No, its ok. Its me." He took off his mask to show her that it was Tai. "You're safe now. I'm gonna get you out of here." He removed the gag from her mouth and Sora took out a deep breath.

"How did you find me?" Sora asked.

"Its not easy to explain." Tai answered, "But I'll tell you later. Right now I gotta get you out of here before Xevin finds me."

"Or me."

Tai and Sora looked up to the roof and saw a demonic figure slowly descending down. Tai put his mask back on and got up. "Stay out of this."

"I knew you had her." Matt said, "I knew you had her from the very start, but you kept denying it."

"I told you I didn't do it." Saji said, "Now get away."

"No!" Matt darted towards Tai and slammed him aside. Saji collided to the wall ahead of him and fell. Matt turned his attention to Sora. His demon appearance scared her, so he removed the face that he had and showed what was underneath, his real face. "Sora. Its me."

"Matt? What happened to you?" Sora asked.

"Apocalymon's powers were mine for the taking." Matt said, "I'm in control of him. You don't need to worry about me, I can control his powers and use it for good."

"But its Apocalymon we're talking about." Sora said, "How could you even think about using his powers for yourself?"

"I wanted to save you." Matt said, "And now I did. With this power, I can save more lives, and stop more evil." His black demonic body was more revealed to Sora, for the wings now opened and expanded. "Will you be with me through all this?"

"Matt, this isn't right!" Saji yelled, "You're using the powers of evil for yourself. Do you really believe that Apocalymon is going to let you control him like this?"

"Don't listen to him Sora." Matt said. He shot an evil glare at Saji, not wanting him to ruin any hope of still being with Sora, "What do you say Sora?"

"I..." Sora stuttered, "I won't." He said those two words firmly and strong, "I won't stay with someone who uses evil for what he believes is right." Sora backed away from Matt, "Its over Matt. We're through."

_Good choice Sora._ Under the mask of the Dark Jester, Tai smiled.

"No." Matt wanted to reach out to touch Sora, but something stopped him. He then saw that Sora's eyes were directed to Saji. "You're with him aren't you!?" His face was consumed by the darkness and the face of the demon took over, "You were against me from the very start!" He closed his wings and dived at Sora, claws out and ready to kill.

"NO!" Saji dove in to stop Matt. He collided into the demon and the two fell to the ground. Saji quickly got to his feet and looked at Sora, "Run!"

Something then got a hold of Saji's foot. Matt was still concious and was grabbing onto Saji's ankle, preventing him from escaping. "I won't let you take her from me!" He got up and pulled Saji with him. He tossed Saji up and slammed him with a punch. Saji landed hard on the ground, but got up from it slowly. "You always wanted to be better than me at everything." Matt then kicked Saji in the guts, "you thought you could actually beat me in getting the girl." He kicked Saji again, "Well, guess again." He grabbed Saji by the throat and raised him up.

"Matt don't!" Sora screamed, "Please stop!"

Matt ignored her plea, he looked at Saji with menacing eyes. "Good-bye clown." He spun Saji aorund and threw him hard. Saji flew through the walls of the warehouse and disappeared through the other side.

"TAI!" Sora only screamed as she saw Saji disappear from her sight. She ran towards Mat and began to slam her fists on him, "You monster! Why don't you ever listen? Tai tried to save me! He never kidnapped me!"

"I know he did." Matt grabbed Sora's fists, "I saw the face of who kidnapped you with my own eyes."

"Did it look like me?"

The two looked over to the voice's origin and saw a caped figure walk towards them. The sound of the boots stepping on the concrete floor echoed throughout the warehouse.

_No._ Sora looked in fear as her kidnapper came closer and closer.

"How did you...?" Matt was confused as to how Saji was still here, even though he threw him through the wall.

"A magician never reveals his secret." His face was hidden under the shadow of his hat. "No matter what he is offered." He raised his head up and revealed his face. the black and white on his mask was switched; for it was the face of Xevin. "Are you ready?"

* * *

**Sorry about the long wait, but schoolwork is really a pain in the ass. I'm also working on a new story, well two new stories. Check them out; 'Senshis' and 'The Key to Destiny'.**

**Please remember to read and review. Also review my other stories.**


	12. Changes in Order

**I hope you guys have been keeping up to date with my story. I haven't been getting as many reviews as before, so if possible, could you guys fill up the reviews to at least 95 or 100 before I update? I just want to know that people are still interested in this.

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**

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Changes in Order**

No sign of life was near. He was all alone in this abandoned location. He was laying flat and prostrate on a stone slab. But this slab wasn't any ordinary slab. The stone was erected from the ground before Tai made an impact with it. It was a tombstone and he had now destroyed the stone. The graveyard was empty, it was fairly large, tombstones as far as the eye could see. Tai remained there, slowly moving, but barely able to, for he was thrown at a force and distance too much for him to know. His mask was off and was on the side, just an arm's reach away from his right hand. He slowly inched his fingers toward the mask and grasped it. He slowly lifted his hand and placed the clown's mask on his face.

_What have I done?  
What have I done?_

Saji slowly got up. He sat on top of the cracked tombstone and lamented his failure. He failed to stop Matt, he failed to save Sora, and he knew he failed in stopping Xevin.

_How could I be so blind?  
All is lost, where was I?  
Spoiled all, spoiled all.  
Everything's gone all wrong._

Around him, his four swords were scattered from the fall. Each were stuck in the grassy dirt around him, erected, but oly one was lying flat on the dirt. His cape then fell off his shoulders, he was now left sitting without his cape to conceal him. In loss and lament, he reached for his hat and removed it.

_What have I done?  
What have I done?  
Find a deep cave to hide in.  
In a million years they'll find me,  
only dust._

He grabbed a handful of dirt and raised it up to the sky. Grasping the dirt in his gloved hand, he slowly opened his hand and let the dirt trail off from his grip. The dirt landed back to where they were removed from.

_And the world looks down,  
and says, "Burn in Hell, Poor Clown!"_

He then fell back on the tombstone, lying back to how he was previously. He knew he had failed, he could might as well rot where he rested.

_But I never intended all this madness, never.  
Yet nobody really understood, how could they?_

All he has done was stop crime with his own brand of justice. Sora had never understood his methods, but being the type of human Sora was, Tai knew Sora couldn't fully understand why he does his vigilante duties his own way. But after almost a year of stopping crime, Sora still doesn't understand him.

_That all I ever wanted was to bring them something great.  
Why does nothing ever turn out like it should?_

_Well, what the heck, I went and did my best,_

Saji rose up from the stone and got to his feet. It was true, he did do his best. It was because of him that crime rates in Odaiba had decreased, it was because of him, the people are more safer than before. It was him who brought fear to the hearts of criminals.

_and, by God, I really tasted something swell.  
As a hero, why, I made injustice die,  
and at least I left some stories they can tell, I did._

He then remembered reality. He remembered what his motivation was that drove him to find Sora. He still loved her, he had that as hope that he would see her again and alive. He remembered that she was the girl he truly loved, not to mention the first girl he ever loved.

_For the first time since I can't remember when,  
I felt just like my old self again._

_Saji is who I am! The Nightmare Clown!_

"That's right." Saji bent down to pick up his hat. He raised his arms up and to his sides. "I am the Nightmare Clown!" He let out a large laugh of a combination of craze, joy, and pure chaos. It was the laugh of Odaiba's common hero, it was the laugh of The Dark Jester.

_And I just can't wait until I see _his _face,  
For he will quake in fear when I am near,  
To give him punishment._

He went around to pick up the cape that had fallen off of him. He took it in his hands and wrapped it around him. He fastened the cape to him and he was now back to his original appearance; deceptive. He went to pick up the four swords he had lost and sheathed each of them back in place.

_And, by God, I'm really gonna give it all my might_!

From the distance, the sound of a woman screaming was heard. "Uh oh." Saji looked in the direction of the scream. Ahead of him was a cliffside and at the bottom, and a large distance away, the warehouse was in sight.

_I hope there's still time to set things right._

Saji took the last sword and sheathed it in. "Sora." He made his way to the warehouse, not caring of the hindrance, or the distance. _I'm coming Sora. Stay strong. _He made his way to the edge of the cliffside. Seeing the distance between him and the warehouse, he looked for a solution to get there. Looking around for anything helpful, he found one. He found a large tree that was almost uprooted. The body of the tree was all that was left, as if someone had sawed off the branches. He approuched the stump of the tree and took out two dice from his belt. He tossed them at the stump and the outcome came to a two and three.

"**Chill**." The dice instantly created a cold substance that covered the roots of the stump. Saji pulled out two of his swords and jumped up. He landed on top of the tree and with the immense pressure he created from the jump, the ice on the stump shattered and the tree was broken free. Saji stabbed the tree with his swords for support and the tree began to slide down the cliffside.

* * *

The demonic body that contained the humanity of Matt flew through the air as he collided into the wall ahead of him. 

"Come on." Xevin mocked Matt, "You claim to have the power to outdo the clown, then show it."

Matt got up on his feet and let the demon within take over. His face changed into his monsterous form. "I'll show you true fear." He rose up with his demon wings and darted at Xevin.

"Is that all you can do?" Xevin asked.

"Matt! Stop!" Sora yelled, "That's not Tai!"

"No shit." Matt exclaimed. Clearly, he was oblivious to the fact that this was indeed not Tai, but instead, his darker self; Xevin. His rage has blinded him from the truth, hiding him away from the light. "I'm gonna kill him. clown or human, it doesn't matter anymore."

Matt ran at Xevin, claws out and ready to slash at him. Xevin still remained calm and peaceful. He waited for Matt to approuch and he made his move. Matt attacked first by slashing, but Xevin stepped back to dodge the swipe. In a movement that seemed to have taken only a second, Xevin pulled out a sword and impaled it into Matt's chest. Matt stood motionless. He looked down and saw the sword pierced through him. He looked back at Xevin and his face was removed to show Matt's face from underneath.

"...T...Ta...Tai..." Matt cringed when he felt the blade going further into him.

"No." Xevin said, "Not Tai." He then hooked onto Matt's right foot and tripped him. Matt fell onto his back and the sword that was stabbed through his chest went into the concrete floor. Xevin released his grip on the sword and stepped back. He pulled out another sword from his back and aimed it at Matt. With immense pressure, he pierced it through Matt's right wrist and stabbed through the flesh and concrete floor.

Matt's scream echoed through the warehouse as Sora could only look in horror. What could she do? She was nothing more than a simple human being.

"You're never going to get away with this." Matt said, as he panted deeply from the pain.

"Matt, please stop!" Sora begged, "You can't do this anymore! Not with the purpose you have."

Matt turned his head and looked at Sora.

"I understand that you wanted to do anything possible to save me, but to become evil itself wasn't what I wanted." Sora eyes began to water with tears as she continued, "You wanted to save me because you loved me, but that no longer seems the reason. You're now trying to kill Saji because you want revenge for something that's not true. Look what you've become and look what's happening to you now."

With the limited amount of movement Matt had, he looked down to his body and saw how he had truely changed. He was no longer the rockstar loving Matt Ishida. He was now Matt, the host of Apocalymon. "What have I done." He looked up at Xevin. "Finish me clown. Let me die knowing my wrong doings."

"Very well." Xevin took out his third sword and pointed it down to Matt's left wrist. He no longer wanted to make this quick work, he wanted Matt to suffer. He slowly pierced it through the flesh and let Matt scream loudly from the slow and painful approuch.

Sora fell down to her knees, covering her ears and looking away as Matt continued to scream. She couldn't bear the sound of the scream, she couldn't handle the torture.

"This will be quick." Xevin pulled out his final sword and aimed the tip at Matt's forehead. As he raised it up to deliver the killing blow, a giant crash interrupted and forced Xevin off his feet. When the crashing settled, Xevin got up to see what or who was responsible for the crash.

From where the crash occured, a large tree was there. The impact of the tree with the wall brought up a mass amount of smoke. But inside the smoke, there was a figure standing on the tree. Sora got up and turned around to see what it was. With the strength he had, Matt looked up to see in the same direction. The figure in the smoke approuched forwards.

"Did you miss me?" Saji asked.

"What?" Matt looked in confusion of seeing two Dark Jesters, "But how?"

"It will be explained later." Saji said. He ran over to Matt and pulled out each of the swords. "Right now, I have some unfinished business with a familiar."

Saji unsheathed one sword and took a fighting stance as Xevin held his only sword.

"You will pay dearly for putting my friends' lives in this." Saji said, "You will pay dearly."

Saji charged at Xevin. He slashed once, but Xevin jumped up and dodged to swipe. Saji slashed agin, as Xevin was landing, but it was also dodged.

"I can see you haven't improved since our last encounter." Xevin remarked, "What pity."

Saji slashed again, but Xevin blocked the attack with his sword. As the two held their position, Xevin slowly moved closer to Saji. "See what compassion does? It slows your focus. It makes you weak."

"Enough!" Saji jumped away.

He pulled out four cards from his belt and threw them at Xevin. Xevin blocked each card with his sword and jumped forward, flipping over Saji and landing behind him. There, his three other swords were resting on the floor. He picked each one up and sheathed them, leaving him with holding two swords. Saji did the same, he unsheathed one more sword and held both blades in his hand. saji ran at Xevin with an overhead swipe, but Xevin blocked the blow and forced the sword down to the ground. With his strength, Saji pulled his sword up and stabbed with the other. Xevin's speed was able to dodge this sneak attack, but his cape was stabbed, The corner of his cape had Saji's sword pierced right through. Saji stabbed his swod to the floor and pinned Xevin's cape. He took his other sword and swiped at Xevin, but even this wasn't an advantage. Xevin ducked and yanked on his cape, ripping it free from the sword.

"What hope do you have against me?" Xevin asked, "You couldn't defeat me before."

"I have hope." Saji answered, "Hope that the strength I have will soon surpass your's." Saji jumped forward and sliced, but Xevin jumped up to dodge the strike, but this time, Saji was prepared. As Xevin was airborne, Saji jumped up and landed a kick to his face. The kick forced Xevin to loose his balance and he fell on his back, landing with a hard thud and a fierce grunt. "How is that for hope?"

Xevin got up to his feet. Still grasping his swords, he charged at Saji. The two clashed swords repeatedly as they moved around the floor, jumping, ducking, and moving in different directions at fast pace. The two continued slashing away, but it seemed as though there would be no winner. Xevin had the leading movement in this fight as he was moving forwards and Saji was moving back. Then came the moment where Xevin caught ahold of one of Saji's swords with his two blades. Crossing his blades, he caught Saji's sword with it and threw it up. Xevin made the move of stabbing Saji in the head, but he dropped to the ground before the blade reached him. Saji grabbed ahold of Xevin's leg and spun around to get behind him. From there, Saji got up and caught the flying sword. With this sword, he swung it forward and pressed the blade to Xevin's throat. He took his second sword and brought it in front of Xevin, with the tip aimed at his chest. Xevin however, retaliated with his own. He took his first sword and aimed the tip at Saji's head and his other sword was aimed at his side.

The two stood there, standing in a stalemate, one move from the other could mean certain death, but possibly bring death to the other.

"Not bad, Saji." Xevin said, "You truly have improved."

"What's it matter to you?" Saji asked.

The two attempted to struggle, but they both knew that neither can move and make it out of the bind alive. Sora watched the entire duel until it ended in a draw, but Matt was concentrated on regenerating his wounds, which were still in the process, for the wounds were far bigger than he had ever encountered.

"Perhaps we can come to some sort of arrangement." Xevin said.

"Arrangement?" Saji asked, "Why do you wish for an arrangement?"

"You and I both know that we won't go any further in our battle to the death like this." Xevin explained. He was right, Saji had no hope of having any sort of upperhand this way. "Let down your swords and so will I."

Saji was hesitant at first. How could he trust him? What proof would Xevin have that he would keep his word? Slowly, but cautiously, Saji lowered his two swords. Xevin did as he said, As Saji removed his swords, Xevin took his swords away too. The two of them sheathed their swords and faced eachother.

"What's the arrangement you have in mind?" Saji asked.

"I propose a fair duel." Xevin said, "Under that honor that I have as The Dark Jester, I will permit you with one night's full rest." Xevin looked through the hole that Saji had created when he made his grand entry with the tree. "By the guesses that I have, it seems you have two hours until midnight. So that will be the arrangement; I grant you with one full night's rest for you to recover all your energy. From there, we meet here at midnight and settle the score once and for all." Xevin extended a hand.

Saji took this deep into thought. Should he accept? What if this is a trap? What if its not? How can Tai even consider trusting him? But what hope did he have? A full night's rest is what he could use. Twenty four hours of peace would truly help him. "Very well." Saji took the hand and shook.

The deal was made.

"Now then." Xevin took his hand back and walked off, "Before I can prepare myself for tomorrow night, I must first see your worth."

"Worth?" Saji asked.

"I have a trial for you." Xevin said, "If you can save yourself and your friends, perhaps you just might have some hope in defeating me." Xevin opened his right hand to show that he had two dice. "Recognize these?"

Saji realized that Xevin had stolen his dice.

"If you survive this trial, then I know I will see you here tomorrow night." Xevin said, "If not, then I will take what is mine." He tossed the dice and the outcome came to two fours.

The dice exploded massively and the entire structure of the wrehouse began to crumble. Saji noticed that Xevin had mysteriously disappeared from sight. He looked to the others and saw that they were indeed in trouble. With Matt being closet to him, he ran towards him. "I have you." He grabbed ahold of Matt and lifted him. He made his way to Sora, but a debris fell in front of him and Saji tripped. "Sora!" The roof began to collapse. Saji had no hope in saving her, but he couldn't let them all die. He took his cape and swung it over himself and Matt.

* * *

Xevin stood outside the wreckage. The warehouse was now completely crumbled and the smoke rose up. "Perhaps you were not as strong as I assumed." Xevin turned and walked away, leaving the scene.

* * *

From under the rubble, Saji broke free, with Matt under him. He removed his mask and took off his hat. "You ok buddy?" 

"I'm fine." Matt said, "I've been better."

Tai remembered about Sora. Realizing that he didn't save her, he looked around. "Sora?!" He called out her name, but got no response. "Sora!" No answer. "SORA!"

From the rubble a large shadow figure rose up and took form.

"Vestige?" Tai asked, "What are you doing here?"

Vestige didn't reply. With his cape, he waved it forward and a large clump of his cape took form. The cape than opened up to reveal that something was contained inside.

"Sora." Tai ran over to Sora and held her. His right hand was at the back of her head as she was lying on the ground, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sora answered.

_(Flashback)_

_Saji swung his cape over Matt as the debris began to fall. Sora was still unprotected by the sheer amount of chaos, but even she knew that Saji couldn't save her. She dropped to her knees and prepared herself for the end._

_From behind her, a large black caped figure dived through the large hole and covered itself around Sora. The debris began to land on it, but this caped figure was unharmed by it._

_(End of Flashback)_

"Thank you." Sora said, "You saved my life."

"But how did you know I would be here?" Tai asked.

"Well, its pretty simple actually." Vestige replied, "I followed you. I came to your base of operation, but saw that you were leaving. I assumed that you were out doing your hero's duty, so I thought I should help out."

The four of them all gathered. It was a miracle that they all made it out alive, but it didn't mean that it was over. Tai still remembered what Xevin had previously mentioned.

"I can't belive I did this." Matt said to himself, "Why do I always have to make the bad decisions?"

"Matt, you did what you thought was right." Tai said, "You wanted to save Sora, but now you know she's safe."

He gently rested his hand on Matt's shoulder, but Matt hit it away and turned around. "Look At Me! Look what I became. I willingly let Apocalymon use my body. I wanted power and I have it, but look what it did to me. I'm a monster."

"Matt..." Tai wanted to help him. Despite the conflicts the two hadin the past, Tai still saw him as his best friend.

Matt backed away. "You can't help me. This was my fault, I need to fix it on my own." Matt turned back and took off into the sky, not looking back.

"Matt!" Tai called for him, but he was too far to hear Tai calling his name.

"Matt, please come back!" Sora called out.

Neither of the calls got his attention. Matt continued flying away from them, disappearing into the night sky.

"We need to get back." Tai said, looking at Sora and Vestige, "Vestige, can you take the two of us back to my home?"

"Of course." Vestige replied, "Hold on tight. This could get a little dark." He jumped forward, towards them. His cape spread open, but his body wasn't there, his cape went over Tai and Sora and the three of them disappeared into darkness.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. Please review.**


	13. Before the Climax

**Warning: This chapter will contain sexual contents and nudity.

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**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Before the Climax**

The nighttime was peaceful, its been a while since Tai had seen a peaceful night. Though it was peaceful, he knew it wouldn't last, it was simply the deep breath before the plunge, and that plunge was the battle between him and Xevin. But even a villian knew when respect was due; Xevin promised Tai one night's rest to prepare for a fair fight to the death. Tai intended to use this night to recover all his strength before the final duel for identity. It would either be him or Xevin that dies, one of them will be killed by the sword of the other and the victor shall be the true Dark Jester. With Sora in his care, Tai knew she would be safe for the night. Tai stood on the roof of his home, staring into the starry sky. As he looked down, he saw that Sora was down below, in his backyard, staring at the same sky as him. He ran over to the edge of the roof and jumped down. Grabbing a hold of the drainpipe, he slid down to the grass and landed softly behind her.

"Its peaceful tonight." Sora said. Apparently, she wasn't at all alarmed of Tai's surprise descent.

"Yeah, it is." Tai responded, "Very peaceful, but this will probably be the last peaceful night for me."

"You don't have to do this." Sora said, "Do you?"

"Yes actually, I do." Tai answered.

"I would be scared to fight against my enemies alone." Sora said. Knowing that she never had to fight alone. She always had her DigiDestined teammates with her whenever she did, and when she didn't, she always had Biyomon.

"So would I." Tai calmly replied, "Very scared."

Sora slowly looked away from the sky and towards Tai with heartfelt eyes, "But you've been fighting alone for so long."

"And I've been scared everytime." Tai said, "I was never calm about it. It always scared me. I may be deceptive, but I'm not immortal."

Tai then noticed that something was crawling down Sora's cheeks, something wet. Tears. Tears were coming from her soft, beautiful eyes and crawling down her cheeks. Sora's eyes began to go red from the tears that she was giving. As she closed her eyes, more tears came out and fell off her face.

"I don't want you to go."

"Sora..." Tai said her name softly, "I have to go." Tai then brought his head down and looked to the ground, "I'm sorry."

Sora responded by calmly turning away and looking back up to the sky. She took a deep breath and held her head high before saying the words she wanted to say for so long.

"I love you."

_What?_ Tai looked back up to her. His eyes were now filled with surprise. She had just said that she loved him. Tai didn't know what to say. He slowly walked up to her from behind. As he came closer, the beautiful scent of her hair filled him with relief. He brought his arms out and with infinite gentleness, he slowly brought his arms around her, his arms just above her breasts. Sora responded to Tai's gesture by bringing her own arms up and holding onto his arms. The tears from her eyes dropped onto Tai's arms, soaking onto his skin.

"Please, don't go." Sora begged.

The two broke away from their hold and turned towards eachother.

"I have to do this." Tai said, "If not, Xevin will continue to cause chaos in the town. If my death is what it takes to end him, then I'll take it."

Sora couldn't hold it in anymore. She wasn't able to hold back the tears. She broke down, crying uncontrollably. The thought of losing Tai was what scared her the most. She couldn't let the man she truly loved die. The tears were falling down her face and dripping onto the ground below. "Please don't go Tai. I can't live my life knowing that you're no longer part of it, I just can't."

Tai's love took over him for this moment. He slowly brought his hands on Sora's shoulders, gently resting them on. "Sora." He softly said. It was just enough to get her to look up to him. The tears in her eyes made her look more beautiful than he had ever seen. Tai slowly leaned over to Sora and pressed his lips onto hers. This movement surprised Sora, but then realizing that it was what she desired, she closed her eyes and took in the kiss. After so long of waiting, she had finally kiss the man she was destined for.

* * *

The two were now in Tai's bedroom. They continued to embrace themselves in their kiss. Sora then broke the kiss and brought her hands under Tai's shirt. She then pulled them up and removed them off of him, throwing it over to one side. Sora looked in silent pity when she saw the many scars and bruises that Tai had on his body. His chest had three small wounds that appeared to be bullet wounds. His arms had small scars, but they were deep. The scars that he had appeared to have been stitched, some of them being old wounds and some that were fresh, possibly being a week old. She began to trace her hands around his chest, touching each scar that was put on him. Tai broke her attention from the wounds when he brought his own hands under her shirt. Sora lifted her arms up, responding to his silent request, he removed the shirt off of her and revealed herself to him, she stood before him in a bright blue laced bra. He slowly moved his hands from her waist to her back, reaching up for the fasten that kept her bra on her. To buy the time, the two kissed and Tai managed to unfasten the bra. Sora now stood before him with only her jeans. Her breasts were now in Tai's full view and Sora wanted it to be this way.

"I've waited for this moment for so long." Tai said, staring at the beauty of her soft breasts and the small luscious nipples that came out like tiny buds.

"So did I." Sora replied softly.

Tai brought his right hand up and gently cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply. He slowly slipped his tongue into her mouth and Sora responded by intertwining her tongue with his. Sora gently cupped his cheeks and gently forced his head down to her chest as she took in a deep breath of ecstasy. Tai's warm breath between her breasts, his nose on her skin and his lips kissing her chest, this was the greatest feeling she ever had. Tai brought his hands to her breasts and gently rested his hands on each globe. Sora breathed heavily as Tai gently and softly grasped each of them. The warmth of his touch aroused Sora with deep pleasure and she responded by kissing Tai and drving her tongue into his mouth. Tai then brought his hands down to her back thighs and lifted her up.

Tai gently brought Sora to his bed. She sat herself down on the edge and slowly leaned back as Tai kneeled over and leaned towards her. Tai brought his head down to her breasts and pressed his lips on the right breast, lapping his tongue at the skin and over her nipple. Sora softly moaned from the ecstasy and wrapped her legs around his waist. Tai then proceeded to the other breast and began to kiss her left breast, Pressing his tongue over the bud that he was creating from her nipple. Rubbing his fingers over the bud he left on her right nipple, Sora absorbed this new feeling, one that she knew she would never forget.. The moaning continued to escape from Sora's lips as the feeling consumed her.

"Tai..."

Tai's lips left the skin of her breasts and he looked back up to her. He brought his hands up to palm the soft globes, taking one in each hand. He rested his hands on her breasts and listened to Sora moan in pleasure. Looking into her eyes and seeing that she was looking down, he knew what she was thinking. He slowly came down to her legs and brought his hands up to undo her pants. He gently pulled them off and she was now left with only her bright blue panties. Tai reached for his own and began to undo his jeans, removing the boxers along with it.

"I don't want to hurt you Sora."

"Don't worry, this is what I want." Sora grabbed ahold of his hands and held them tightly, "It won't hurt me."

Tai brought his hands to where her two legs met and reached for the last piece of material that seperated himself from her. He removed the panties and now, the two were completely free from the barracade of clothes. Sora brought herself up further on the bed and Tai came closer to her. He pressed his lips on her soft stomach and kissed her as he traveled up to her chest, her neck, and then to her lips. As the two kissed, Tai brought himself inside her and Sora broke the kiss to moan in delight. Sora gasped for air as this feeling made her breath escape from her lungs. Tai slowly began to rock up and down as Sora held tightly onto the bed sheets.

"Don't stop Tai..."

Tai brought his head down and kissed her again. His soft rocking slowly grew into a more forceful push, thrusting himself deeper into her, Sora moaned more with pleasure. The feeling of having Tai inside her was something Sora knew she would never regret. The great feeling made Sora pant softly and moan after each hard, yet gentle thrust. He grabbed ahold of Tai's shoulders and pressed her breasts on him, as he continued to keep thrusting himself into her.

The two broke apart from their kiss and stared into eachother's eyes and Tai kept rocking both their bodies back and forth. The two of them were now sweating from the immense heat of their bodies touching eachother. Sora felt that the end was coming close. The two embraced eachother tightly, letting Tai continue rocking eachother. What seemed like several minutes seemed like years of joy, desire, and excitement as Sora took in a deep breath when she felt Tai's climax entering her. It forced her to release her grip on Tai and she dropped back on the bed, with only her hands softly wrapped over the back of his neck. The rocking kept going as Tai's climax was coming closer and closer. It finally came and Sora gave a small squeal of feeling when the two finally climaxed.

Exhausted, Tai fell on the bed next to her. The two stared into eachother's eyes deeply as they let their moment of climax calm down.

"I love you." Sora said softly.

"I love you too." Tai said.

They held eachother's hands and kissed. Sora's hands released her grip from Tai's and wrapped around Tai. She then brought her legs and wrapped them around Tai, having as much of her skin in contact with his.

* * *

He stood outside her window. She was sleeping so peacefully, the moonlight shining on her beautiful face. Davis floated outside of her bedroom window, the body of Vestige keeping him up in the sky. His black cape waved with the breeze as he was weightless and off his feet. Davis' face was all that was visible of his humanity, he wanted to see Kari with his own eyes. He slowly hovered over to the window and gently pressed his black hands on the window, wanting to take a closer look at Kari. As his hand came in contact with the window, he made a small thud from the touch. Kari opened her eyes and quickly looked up. Davis instantly backed away and his face was covered with black and green eyes.

Kari looked at the window and walked over. She opened the window and looked out, but saw nothing there. Above her, pressed to the wall, away from her sight, the shadow of Vestige was there, hiding. As Kari brought her head back in, Vestige pulled himself out of the wall. His body still partially in his 'shadow form', he made his body contort to look through the window again, yet still stay in the wall if he still needed to make a quick retreat.

"How could I have been angry at someone like her?" He asked himself.

Kari was back in her bed, covering herself with her blanket as she closed her eyes and feel back to sleep.

The black cape waved towards his face and wrapped itself around. Vestige's face took over and he forced himself out of the wall. As he descended down, his cape took form of the black feathered wings and he began to rise back up. Flapping his wings he soared through the night sky, cutting through the air and letting the moon shine on his back.

* * *

From down below, in the dark streets, evil still lurked. From the shadowing corners, a collection of smoke was present. The figure of smoke drifted down the streets, breezing by and seeming unnoticed. After it found a place in the streets that was empty, the smoke gathered into a form of a person. The figure began to start taking steps on the street. As it walked down the street, the smoke changed into flesh, and clothes.

He was back.

Smoke was back.

Jon Kashincho was back.

* * *

The sun came up, singifying that it was now morning. The bright light crept into the bedroom through the window, reaching the bed. Tai and Sora still rested as the sun was shining on them. Tai slowly opened his eyes from the sunlight to see that it was morning. He rubbed his hand softly on Sora's cheek to calmly wake her.

"Hey baby." He smiled.

Sora slowly opened her eyes, finding herself in Tai's arms.

"It was real?" She asked, "Last night wasn't just a dream?"

"Of course not." Tai replied.

Sora slowly moved herself closer to Tai, resting her head on his shoulder as Tai wrapped an arm around her."Last night was...incredible. I wish it didn't end."

"I wish it didn't either." Tai sighed.

The two relaxed on Tai's bed as the let the morning lift their drowsiness away. What happened to them last night was something that the two remembered very clearly. Everything that they did, they remembered. They remembered every moment that they spent together. It was like they were in heaven.

"Why don't we make this day memorable?" Tai asked, "Let's go out."

"What can we do?" Sora asked. She glanced to the clock that was on Tai's night table. "It's 7:00 in the morning."

"I've got some ideas." Tai smiled, "Very good ones."

* * *

Though Tai and Sora spent their time together, Davis still had school. He was walking down the halll to class, but as he turned a corner, a book came flying towards him. He quickly backed away and let the book whiz past his face.

"Karen, calm down." Davis looked over and saw a group of people crowding over Jinsu and is girlfriend.

"You think I find it funny?" Karen asked with rage, "You think I find it funny for you to ditch me at the dance to go makeout with some other slut?"

"Karen, I was drunk. I don't even remember what happened that night." Jinsu tried to keep Karen calm, but the commotion had already brought attention to others, "I never wanted to tell you cause I didn't think it would be a big deal."

"Trust me, this _is_ a big deal." Karen snapped, "Not only did you do this, but you kept it a secret from me."

"Karen please..." Before Jinsu coud go any further to calm her down, another book flew through the air and hit him in the face.

"I don't want to hear it!" Karen screamed, "We're over." She turned and stormed off down the hall.

"Karen, wait. Karen..." Jinsu knew he couldn't get her attention now, "DAMMIT!"

Karen was walking through the crowd of people and went through double doors that led to the stairs. With no one around looking at her, she started to tear little by little. As she came closer to the bootom of the the flight, her ankle gave way and she fell over, the books in her arms falling and spreading over the floor.

"Great." She muttered.

She got on her knees and began to gather all the loose pages of her notebooks and her textbooks, but then she saw someone kneeling in front of her, helping her with the mess.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Jon?" Karen quickly turned away and wiped away the tears. "Yeah, I'm fine." Jo helped her to her feet as he held onto some of the books she carried, "Is there something you need? Notes for class?"

"Uh, no. I saw what happened and I wanted to know if you were alright." Jon replied. He remained calm and tried to act as 'un-nerdy' as possible, which seemed to be alot easier than he expected.

"You saw it too?" Karen asked, "Was I really that loud?"

"I heard you at the end of the hall." Jon smiled, "And I also found this." He took out a book from his bag. It was the book that Karen first threw that just missed Davis' face.

"Oh thanks." Karen smiled back, "I don't know what came over me. I just suddenly started throwing whatever was in my reach."

"Don't worry about Jinsu. That guy's a jerk." Jon said, "I know for a fact that he does remember what he did."

"Really." Karen gave him a weird look, "And how would you know that?"

"I'd like to explain, but I might go into 'Nerd Mode'." Jon smiled, "It'd be both boring and probably long."

"Well, my class is on the other side of the school." Karen smiled, "Maybe you can explain it to me before we get there."

From the top of the stairs, behind the double doors, Jinsu stood there, looking at Jon and Karen socializing and smiling.

"Hey listen, there's gonna be a party at Jinsu's place. Its to celebrate our school soccer team's victory." Karen said, "You wanna come?"

"You think I would be allowed there?" Jon asked, "After all, look at who you're talking to."

"I might be able to get you a VIP pass." Karen smiled. She brought her hand up and rested it on Jon's shoulder, "What do you say?"

"I'll be there." Jon smiled. The two walked through the doors and he walked her to her classroom.

* * *

Davis was lucky to be on time for school, but to his surprise, he was actually early. He thought he could might as well kill some time. He had something planned and walked around the school, looking for the specific person for the plan. He knew where this person was, he went through the halls, looking for the person's locker, until he found it.

"Hey Kari."

"Davis?" Kari was very surrpised to see him, "Uh, hi."

"Listen, can we talk?" Davis asked, "I think its time we actually had a decent conversation. Don't you?"

Kari was speeachless. Before, Davis would try to flirt with her, getting her attention somehow, most often through stupidity. Afterwards, he began to ignore her, even show anger towards her, but now it was different. He actually asked to talk to her. "Yeah." She answered, "It think its time too."

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. We're coming to a close soon, I'm not gonna say how many more chapters, but be prepared for the ending, but don't worry. The endings gonna make it obvious that there will be a third story.**

**Remember to read and review. I'll update sometime soon, but I'd like my reviews reach at least 110. If its close enough, I'll update.**


	14. Plots of the Night

**I'm glad you all liked that previous chapter. I'm also glad that my reviews have finally reached over 100. Also to note to some of the fans of my other stories, They won't be updated until I finish this story, which will be soon. So anyways, here's the update.**

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* * *

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**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Plots of the Night**

(10:03 pm)

It was now getting late. Tai and Sora had spent their entire day doing things together that they knew they would remember for the years to come. Tai had until midnight before the climatic battle, giving him some time to prepare. The two were back in Tai's place, resting on the couch as the TV was on. Tai had his arm resting on the armrest and Sora was resting her head on his shoulder. The movie that they were currently watching had just finished and Tai reached for the remote to turn the TV off.

"Its time isn't it?" Sora asked.

Tai didn't answer right away. He turned off the TV and paused before answering, "Yeah. It is."

"I'm not going to stop you, but you have to know how hard it is for me to let you go." sora said softly.

"I know." Tai said, "Its hard for me to leave you like this."

The two kissed for what seemed to be a long time, but was only a mere 5 seconds. This would be their last night together of he should fail, or their last moment before the time of peace if he survived.

"Listen, I have some things to deal with before I leave, I'll see you at the cave." Tai said, "I just have to clear my head for a little while."

Tai got up from the couch and walked towrds the stairs and towards his bedroom. Sora still sat on the couch, looking at Tai as he left from her sight. She then looked over to the door that would lead her to the basement, which also hid the secret entrance to The Dark Jester's lair.

Tai was in his room. He sat down on his desk and took out a sheet of paper and a pen. He wanted to leave something behind in case he didn't return. He wanted to leave a note. With everything in his mind and prepared, he took the pen and began to write out what was in his heart.

* * *

(10:15 pm) 

Lights were flashing in multiple colors with music coming from the inside. People came from random locations to get to the house with the music and lights. Among them, Davis, TK, Kari, Yolei, and Ken were there. Obviously, Ken wasn't a student in the school, but Yolei still brought him along. The group gathered around in the house while the music went on with the lights still flashing.

"I expected something a little less, but this is pretty nice." Davis said.

"At least we have a real DJ here." TK responded. The group gathered closely so that they wouldn't lose eachother in the large crowd.

Moments later, Karen entered the house, with Jon by her side. "Come on, Jon." Karen grabbed his arm and pulled him, "You'll be fine."

"You sure?" Jon asked, "I don't want to put a bad image on you for bringing me here."

"It's alright. What's the worse they'll do to me? Gossip?" Karen smiled, "As far as these people know, you've been accepted to the big crowd. They won't do anything to you."

"Might as well enjoy it." Jon smiled back, "You want a drink?"

"I'd love one." Karen replied.

Jon walked through the crowd, heading to the kitchen. By guesses, he assumed that the drinks were served in the kitchen. As Karen looked around the place, waiting for Jon to return, someone grabbed Karen by the shoulder.

"What's up baby?" Jinsu stood there. Karen instantly changed her exression to disgust.

"What do you want?" Karen asked, rather rudely.

"I noticed you coming in." Jinsu answered, "But what the hell is Jon doing here?" He saw that Jon went to the kitchen to get the drinks.

"Because I invited him here." Karen replied strongly.

"You did what?" Jinsu asked, "Are you out of your mind? You asked Jon to come?"

"You have a problem with that?" Karen asked, "I told you, we're done. I found someone new, and for the first time in so long, I'm happy."

Karen pushed through the crowd of people and disappeared, wanting to be away from Jinsu. Jon later showed up, but didn't see her, only Jinsu.

"Hey, what's up man?" Jinsu wrapped his arm around Jon's neck. He was planning something, but had to make it seem unobvious. "How's the party?"

"Um. Pretty cool, I guess." Jon replied, "Have you seen Karen?"

"Uh, no I haven't." Jinsu lied, "Listen buddy, there's something you need to know about our parties. For every new person that wishes to attend these gatherings, they have to go through a right of passage. You think you're up for the challenge?"

"Of course." Jon replied. This was what he needed, he wanted to be accepted. This could be the only way for that to happen.

"Let me just gather the leaders of this ritual." Jinsu said, "Stay here, I'll be right back."

* * *

Davis, Kari, TK, Ken, and Yolei danced along with the loud music. As Davis was enjoying himself, he saw something at the corner of his sight. He saw Jinsu whispering to one of his friends. From what could assume, considering it was Jinsu, he was planning something bad. 

"Hey Davis." Ken got Davis' attention from what he was looking at currently, "Yolei told me you talked to Kari."

"Yeah, I did." Davis answered.

"What did you two talk about?" Ken asked.

(Flashback)

_The two were outside, sitting at a bench that rested on the wall. Kari remmebered this place well. It was where she sat before she was pulled into the Dark Ocean, and when TK told her that he cared about her._

_"I guess maybe I should say something first." Kari said. Davis nodded in agreement, "I know what I said to you back then was very harsh. I never considered your feelings in any of it." She reached out and held his hands, "I hope that maybe we can move past that, start something new. I was thinking that maybe..."_

_"Its not that easy Kari." Davis interuptted her, "Before, I wanted to ignore all these talks with you for the worst of reasons. Now, I have other reasons to do this."_

_"What do you mean?" Kari asked, she wasn't understanding what Davis was talking about._

_"I'm trying to say that...I thought that I could do everything to make you happy, and be the guy you always wanted." Davis responded, "But not anymore. I can't be there for you anymore."_

_"Why do you keep doing this?" Kari asked. She was getting hurt by the one person who had true feelings for her. "Before, you constantly try to get my attention and I always reject it. Now, I want to be with you and your doing the same. Are you trying to get back at me for what I did?"_

_"No, that's not it at all." Davis said, "Its not like that. There's just some things in my life that I can't share with you." He saw that Kari was starting to cry a little, "Please don't cry Kari, I want you to understand this, but you're not making this easy."_

_"But don't you love me?" Kari asked, "Hasn't that feeling ever come to you?"_

_"Please don't go this far." Davis begged. Now that Kari mentioned the word 'love', it was going to be much more harder for him to do this, "This isn't what I want to go at."_

_The two were now silent, not being able to think of anything else to say. Kar finally gathered the courgae and spoke. __"Let me ask you, one last time." Kari said firmly, "Do you love me, or do you not?"_

_Davis paused. He couldn't let a face so beautiful as hers be torn by tears of sadness. But he had his reasons, he needed to be truthful to her. "I'm sorry Kari. I don't." Davis get go of his grip on Kari's hand. He got up from the bench and walked back in the school._

(End of Flashback)

* * *

Jon waited patiently for either Karen or Jinsu to come back. Jinsu returned with six other people. 

"You ready for this?" Jinsu asked.

"Sure thing." Jon replied.

"Everything's set up in the basement." Jinsu and his six other friends guided Jon towards the door that led them to the basement. As they all went through the door, Jinsu stopped one of them, "Stay here. Make sure Karen doesn't get through."

Karen saw from a distance that Jon was being taken there and could only assume something was going to happen. She pushed through the crowd and went to the door, but one of Jinsu's friend was gaurding the way.

"Let me in." Karen demanded.

"Sorry." He replied, "Jinsu made it clear that you aren't allowed in here."

"I saw you guys take Jon in there." She said, "What are you going to do to him?"

* * *

"This isn't funny!" Jon screamed. He was strapped to a chair in the middle of the basement. A combination of rope and duct tape was used to make sure he didn't break loose, "Let me go!" 

"You said you wanted to be accepted." Jinsu replied, "This is the only way."

Jinsu as his friends continued to cheer as each of them began to throw water balloons at Jon. While one of them took the balloons and filled them up at a nearby sink, the others grabbed on and threw them.

"Hey, let's prepare our homemade 'Jinsu-special' beer for this guy." Jinsu said, "Let's see if he could take it in."

One of them went to the fridge of the pulled out some bottles of beer and other things that Jon didn't know of. They were all placed on top of a washing machine that was next to the fridge.

"You got everything?" Jinsu asked.

"Let's see." The one who took the bottles out examined each of them. "Beer, old milk, eggnog, soy sauce, hot sauce. Yep. Its all here." The beer wasin its glass bottle, the old milk was in a carton, the soy sauce was in a small plastic bottle, the hot sauce was in a squeezing bottle, almost half empty, and the eggnog was in a small plastic container.

"Let's give it to him." Jinsu smiled. He took one of the bottles of beer and emptied the contents into the sink. With the empty bottle, he filled a quarter of it with the other beer. He then poured a small amount of the old milk until it was half full. He filled the remainder with the eggnog and hot sauce, until there was only a little bit of space left, which was for shaking the contents. "Oh wait, the soy sauce." Jinsu looked at Jon struggling to break loose. He was lost in focus that he didn't notice that he grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol instead of the bottle of soy sauce. He poured the contents in and closed the lid. He shook it all and walked over to Jon, "Open up."

"Get that away from me!" Jon turned away, he knew that it was going to taste horrible and didn't want to try it, "Jusy let me go."

"You should've thought about that before you came here." Jinsu slammed his knee on Jon's legs and grabbed his nose. "Saw 'ah'."

With his mouth being the only way to breathe, he opened up and Jinsu poured everything in. The contents spilled over his mouth, but he took everything in, not being able to breathe with his nose. Jinsu finally released his grip on Jon's nose and stopped filling his mouth with the mixture.

"How do you like that?" Jinsu and his friends all laughed at him as Jon coughed massively. "Cut him loose."

The rope and duct tape on Jon was cut and he fell on his knees, still coughing. He then began to hurl out the contents of whatever was in the bottle.

"What's the matter Jon?"

"Can't take it in like a man?"

"You gonna cry now?"

"Gonna run to mommy?"

Jinsu stood over Jon, simply smiling at his success. He leaned over towards Jon, saying, "Sucks to be you Fucker."

"Son Of A Bitch!" Jon charged at Jinsu and pushed him down to the ground. He then jumped over him and made his way up the stairs, wanting to escape. He opened the door and the sudden rush of loud music and lights filled him.

Everyone around him looked at the mess on his clothes and began to laugh. Karen was there and gave a look of pity.

"Jon, are you alright?" She asked.

"Get away from me!" Jon backed away from her, "Just stay away."

Karen didn't know what happened to Jon, but seeing him the way he was, she knew he needed help. "Jon, let me help."

"No!" Jon yelled. He backed away from her again. He suddenly dropped to his knees and began to throw up again. Everyone around began to respond in 'eews' and 'disgusting'. Unknown to them all, in the mixture of what came out of Jon, traces of blood was present, but the darkness and the multi-colored lights hid the blood red color. He saw that everyone around him was laughing at him now, pointing fingers at him and enjoying his humiliation. "You bastards are gonna go to Hell!"

He ran out the door, pushing through the crowd. He walked down the street aimlessly. He made his way into an alleyway nearby and leaned on the wall. He grabbed his stomach in pain. Something was in that drink that seemed to kill him from inside. In desperation, he bent over and threw up on the ground. Thinking that would at least to some extent, it didn't. The pain was still there and it seemed to get worse. Jon realized that he was turning into smoke. His body was changing in appearance, which was strange. He didn't want to do this. He suddenly felt a stronger sting of pain, it was really killing him. He threw his head back and screamed out his pain. His body slowly started to change in color. The smoke that made him was slowly changing to a venomous like color. The pain kept coming, attacking his stomach. He continued to scream it all out until finally, it stopped. The pain was gone. Jon was still alive. He looked over towards the direction of where Jinsu's house was.

"It's payback time."

From within the smoke, something formed over his face, small particles of metal gathered around and form the mask and covered his identity, glowing red in the eyes.

* * *

(Meanwhile, at 10:31 pm) 

Tai made his way to his lair. It was almost time for him to prepare for his fight. He went to grab his required clothing for the night. He grabbed the black pants and put them on, but noticed that the rest was missing. He walked around the lair wondering where he could have left it.

"Tai?"

Tai heard Sora's voice and followed it. He saw Sora was standing next to the table with all of Tai's equipment and his clothes were on a chair next to her. What was she doing with all of it?

"I want to at least see you one last time before Saji takes you." Sora said.

"Alright." Tai said softly.

He walked over to Sora. He was only in his black pants and the belt. With him being close enough to Sora, she took the tunic and brought it over Tai and helped him put his clothes on. Tai slowly placed his arms through the sleeves and let it slip over him. Sora clothes the tunic and buttoned the front up. She then took his gloves and gently placed them onto his hands. She continued to place the other peices of clothing on him, seeing Taichi Kamiya slowly change into the Dark Jester. She took the boots and let Tai put them on himself. He brushed the small traces of dirt off the boots and stood up straight, letting Sora continue. She took the cape and wrapped in around Tai. She had her arms around Tai's shoulders as she was fixing the cape in place. Their eyes met and they looked at eachother intimately. Sora looked down, she knew this would probably be the last time she would see that face. She slowly moved behind Tai and brushed off the dust on his cape. She suddenly began to give tears. She wrapped her arms around Tai's waist and rested her head on him. Tai simply stood there, dressed in his black pants, tunic, cape and hat. Holding him gave her a warm feeling, a feeling that she was always seeking, but could never find. It was the feelingof true love. She cried, knowing that it would be a very long time before she would get this feeling again.

Tai slowly reached up and held onto Sora's hands closed his eyes. This was probably going to be their last moment of peace. He wanted it to be savored. He knew that this fight was going to be near impossible to win, but he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

He needed a reason to live on, a reason to keep fighting and not give up.

She was that reason.

* * *

**Well, that concludes this chapter. Thank you all for the reviews, I can see that lots of people are into this. There's still a few more chapters left to go, so be patient and hope you enjoy the rest of it.**


	15. Poisoned

**Hope you guys liked the previous chapter. Please remember to read and review. I really like to know what people think of my updates.**

* * *

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Poisoned**

The loud music from the DJ cranked up as the people continued dancing. It's been several minutes since Jon disappeared from the party, acting as if he was about to throw up. The group of teens that were responsible for it seemed to be proud of their successful payback to him.

"That'll teach him to try and hit on my girl." Jinsu said.

"I thought she was your ex." one of them said.

"Shut up fool." Jinsu snapped, "I could get back with her just as easily as beating the life out of that fucker Jon."

Davis, Ken, Yolie, TK, and Kari were still somewhat upset about what they saw. Seeing Jon humiliated in front of a party group was something that would scar them deeply.

"I feel so bad for Jon." TK said, "Why did have to do that to him?"

"I hope he's alright." Kari said, "He didn't look to good when he ran outside."

"He's been gone for a while now." TK said.

The party seemed to go smoothly, despite the fact that they had just witnessed Jon Kashincho's public humiliation, things were still upbeat and loud as before. The flashing colored lights beamed around the room with the people dancing along with the loud music.

* * *

From outside the house, in the alleyway across the street, a cloud of dark green smoke slowly hovered low on the street and made its way towards the party. It had a plan to crash the party, and crash is what it'll do.

* * *

As the music and dancing kept up, something began to darken the place. Though there was light inside the house, the moonlight was covered by a large cloud of smoke that covered the window. 

"What the hell is that?" TK asked.

Davis knew very well what was happening. Though he didn't know the reaosn, Smoke was here. He slowly and quietly backed away from the crowd and made his way out the side door, undetected by anyone. Mainly because they were all looking at the smoke cloud outside the window.

The smoke slowly came closer towards the windows and as it came closer, cracks appeared on the glass. Once it came close enough, the windows shattered into millions of fragments and opened a way in for the large cloud. The smoke slowly formed into a smaller structure, taking on the shape of a person. The legs, arms, torso, and head were all there. Its eyes were glowing a bright red color, the color of evil. Everything about this figure was smoke, except for a mask that was on the face. The green smoke figure hovered through the opening and entered the house.

"Sorry, I had trouble finding the door." Smoke said.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Jinsu stepped up before everyone, "You better pay for that window!"

"Oh, hi there Jinsu." Smoke said with a tone of evil joy, "I knew I'd see you here."

From the crowd, Karen looked on to see what would happen next, but as she did, she saw that something was familiar about Smoke, something about him reminded her of someone. Ken, Yolie, TK, and Kari were in the back of the crowd.

"Wait, where's Davis?" Kari asked.

"Davis?" The four of them looked around for any sign of him, but he was already out of the house and heading for an empty location. He found a spot between two houses. In there, he removed his clothing, leaving him with only his jeans and the belt. He activated the mechanism on the belt and from the buckle, the black material came out and covered his body, reaching down to his legs, fingertips and head.

* * *

"Wait, how do you know my name?" Jinsu asked. He was now getting scared, "Have you been stalking me?" 

"I've been around you when you never knew. You probably knew me as something else." Smoke slowly hovered towards him, "You've been a pretty horrible person. I think I should show you what its like, in greater measures."

Smoke raised his right arm up. His fist began to emit a large amount of the green poisonous smoke and he shot it at Jinsu. The smoke was still connected to Smoke's fist. He lifted Jinsu up and looked in delight to see the torture of his human life bully.

Karen finally knew who Smoke reminded her of. The words he said made it obvious to her. Seeing the evil in him, Karen looked at Smoke, formally known and Jon Kashincho.

"Please, stop!" Karen ran through the crowd and grabbed ahold of Smoke's leg, but as she did, the poisonous smoke traveled through her arms and she felt herself getting weaker. She released her grip and slowly backed away staggering and trying to catch balance of her movement. She fell down to the floor, unconcious from the effect.

Smoke saw what had just happened and his look of evil delight changed into a look of guilt. "Karen!" He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, but knowing what would happen, he couldn't, "I did mean to..." He realized that was no longer just a collection of smoke, but a collection of poisonous smoke. He looked in rage at Jinsu, it was him who put the poison in him, "You Did This To Me!!!!!"

The beam of smoke that connected him and Jinsu grew larger. With the rage in him, Smoke threw Jinsu out the open window and watched as he slammed onto the concrete pavement. Everyone in the party ran outof the house, not wanting to be a part of Smoke's rage. TK and Kari helped Karen to her feet and carried her out of the house. Ken and Yolie ran out of the house to see what the outcome of this would be.

Jinsu slowly got up from the assault, but when he looked up, he saw staring at the red eyes of his predator. Smoke looked at him with a smile, but this smile was not any smile, it was the smile Smoke was comfortable with, it was his evil smile.

"Sucks to be you, Fucker."

Jinsu knew those words from somewhere, but he couldn't remember when. He then remembered what happened several minutes ago, he remembered Jon's public humiliation, he remembered the words. The words that he said to Jon.

"Jon?" Those were the last words that Jinsu would ever say. Smoke released another blast of poisonous smoke and it consumed him. The poison entered his lungs and before long, there was no more life in him. Jinsu fell to the pavement, lifeless.

Everybody that had just witnessed the murder were in shock. Though none of them heard Jinsu say his name, Jon didn't want to take any chances. He turned to the nearest group and stared at them with evil eyes. Unfortunately, it was Kari and TK with the unconcious Karen

"Sorry." He said, "Can't have you telling anyone about me." Before he could make a move, he saw that the one that was unconcious was Karen. He quickly stopped himself from producing a ball of gas and slowly floated away. "I'll save you for later."

"I'm afraid there won't be a later."

"Huh? Who said that?" Smoke looked around, but there was no one who looked like they could have said it.

"Coming through." From behind, Vestige flew right towards Smoke and tackled him on the ground. "Missed me?"

"You!" Smoke got up from the hit and quickly got back up, above the ground, "You're like dog shit; you're everywhere."

"I could say the same about you." Vestige snapped back, "After what you did to Jinsu, I ain't gonna let you go off easily."

"Try and stop me." Smoke flew up to the roof of the building, but Vestige was closely behind him.

As the two came up to the roof, Smoke turned around and faced Vestige, preparing for a fight. The two hovered arond the sky, occasionaly slamming into eachother. To the people down below, it looked like two flies simply hitting eachother, but to them, as they collided, that was their few seconds of non-stop punching. After those seconds, they quickly backed away, regaining their strength for another slam.

Among them all, Kari was there, looking up at the fight between Smoke and Vestige. "Be careful." She whispered softly.

At this moment, Vestige had the upper hand. With a successful punch, Smoke lost his focus and that gave Vestige the advantage of connecting with another punch, without risking Smoke of dodging the hit. He brought his knee up and slammed it into Smoke's chest, following it with an elbow to the back of his head. Vestige then connected with one final punch and it sent Smoke flying through the sky and slamming into the chimney of Jinsu's house. Vestige slowly flew over to him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around for one final strike.

As he prepared for a fatal punch to his face, Smoke began to have a different tone of voice. "Please...don't hurt me...". His mask was cracked, but it still showed no emotional appearance, but then he saw that the mask broke off and revealed a smoke figure of the face. Behind the mask of Vestige, he quickly recognized the face.

"Oh my god, Jon? Jon Kashincho?" Vestige asked in shock, "How did this happen to you?"

"I-I don't know. I honestly don't." He replied.

"Jon, you can't do this. Its not right." Vestige said, "You can't just kill Jinsu the way you just did. He was innocent."

"He wasn't innocent. No One Is!" Smoke then wrapped Vestige into a fist of smoke and tossed him away. "Not even you can stop me from punishing the wrong doers!"

Smoke hurled a large ball of his poisoned smoke towards Vestige. He dodged the incoming throw, but when he looked back at Smoke, he was right in front of him. Smoke delivered a punch at Vestige and he fell down to the streets below. Smoke hovered down towards him as Vestige slowly got up from the fall. He ran towards Smoke and sent a punch stright for his chest, but instead of hitting him, his fist went right through his smoke body and his fist appeared on the other side. Smoke pulled his head back and charged it forward for a headbutt that knocked Vestige back and down to the ground.

"I'm not the same person you faced before." Smoke said.

"Yeah, I can see that now." Vestige replied. Seeing as how Smoke was now consumed by green poisonous smoke.

"I am no longer Smoke. My name is **Toxic**." He said, "For I am deadly and poisonous."

"Well unfortunately, Toxic will be short-lived." Vestige said, as he slowly got to his feet. "I'll still beat you like before."

"Not when I raise the stakes." Toxic darted past Vestige and landed just before the onlookers. He reached into the crowd with his smoke and grabbed on of them. His smoke wrapped around one like a snake wrapping around its prey.

"Let her go!" Vestige saw that Toxic had gotten a hold of Kari. "Leave her out of this!"

"Remember me?" Toxic asked Kari with a tone of evil nature. He looked back to Vestige with Kari in his bound, "Come and get her." He flew up to the sky and flew off into the distant.

Vestige's cape took form of angelic black wings and they flapped as he began to rise up. He then looked to the direction of where Toxic went.

"Get back here!" Vestige called out. He darted towards Toxic, but he was always short of a distance.

The two flew through the sky, cutting the air and clouds. Toxic, was still far ahead, and Kari was in his grasp. Vestige didn't give up, he continued to fly forward, with every flap of his wing giving him some hope that he would make it. As he got closer and closer to Toxic's feet, he thrusted his left arm forward. His black suit sprouted a large black tentacle that grasped onto Toxic's feet. From there, Vestige changed his wings back into a cape and his dropped. As he dropped, the connection between him and Toxic's feet swung him under Toxic, bringing him to appear in front of Toxic.

"Surprise!" Vestige landed a hard kick to Toxic's face and that released his grip on Kari. Vestige flew towards Kari and caught her. "Why am I always the one who saves you?"

"Watch out!" Kari pointed up to where Toxic was, but he was too late.

Toxic slammed onto Vestige's back and pressed his knees on him. He then grabbed onto his two wings and began to pull on them.

"No!" Vestige couldn't do anything to stop him. Kari was in his arms and Toxic was behind him. "Stop!"

"Never!" Toxic pulled with more force and finally, the two wings were ripped off. Toxic tossed the wings aside and floated back up, letting the two others fall to their deaths.

As the two began to fall, Vestige turned over and with the strength he had, he shot out another black tentacle-like whip, which latched onto Toxic's face. From there, Vestige prepared himself for a quick-timing move. He threw Kari up to the sky and pulled on the whip that brought Toxic down. The two collided, but it didn't stop there, as the two fell down, they proceeded to land punches on eachother. Each punch either slowering their fall or speeding it up, for the force of the punches moved their bodies. Vestige then grabbed onto Toxic's head and headbutted him with massive force. From there, he managed to pull himself up, until he was on top. He planted his feet on Toxic and from there, he used Toxic's body to jump up. As Vestige went up, he came closer and closer to Kari. He brought his arms up, ready to grab onto Kari when she was in reach. Once he was close enough, he grabbed onto her waist and pulled her in.

"Hang on!" Vestige called out.

Kari tightly wrapped her arms around Vestige as the two fell. Vestige looked up and saw that his wings were still floating about. With his arms, he flung out long whips from each hand and latched onto the two broken wings. He then pulled them up and they came within an arm's reach.

"Don't let go of me." Vestige said. He grabbed onto the wings and pulled them to his back. As he got the wings to make contact with his back, the black material fused together, combining the wings back onto him. _I can't flap. I might lose grip of Kari if I do._

Vestige changed his wings back into a cape.

"How strong is your hold?" Vestige asked.

"Strong enough." Kari replied, "Please save us."

"Then hang on tightly." Vestige wrapped his arms and legs around Kari tightly. With his cape dancing with the force of the wind, it grew into a larger size and expanded into what looked to be a parachute. The two began to fall slower and slower, until finally, they were falling and a safe rate.

They came down ot the ground and the parachute changed back into a cape.

"Now get out of..." SLAM! Something struck Vestige from behind and forced him down to the gravel ground. Behind him was Toxic, holding a large wodden plank with his smoke, in the form of giant hands.

"You're really pissing me off." Toxic said, "Maybe its time to end it." He threw the plank aside and walked towards Vestige.

"Listen Jon, you can end this right now." Vestige said, "You don't have to do this."

"Nice try, blacky." Toxic smirked, "Your heroic speech isn't worth my time." He dived at Vestige, with his arms out and ready to grab. Vestige fell back, dodging the charge, and lifted both his feet up, slamming them into Toxic's stomach.

Vestige jumped onto his feet and turned towards Toxic. The two lowered themselves and jumped up. The two collided, but none were showing any sign of holding back.

"Listen to me Jon." Vestige said, "I'm not here to trick you."

"I'm not falling for it!" Toxic yelled, "You can't trick me!"

Toxic prepared himself to punch Vestige, but his fist was caught by Vestige's cape. While the two were still airborne, Vestige grabbed ahold of Toxic's neck and the two plummeted down to the ground. Vestige held him down to the gravel ground. "I know what you've went through. I've been through the same thing before."

"You know nothing of what I go through!" Toxic yelled.

He grabbed ahold of Vestige and began to pump his poisonous gas into the black hero. Vestige released his grip of Toxic and began to choke on the poison.

"Jon please stop." Vestige wheezed out, "Trust me, I truly know. I truly understand."

"How can you say that?" Toxic asked, "You saying this to deceive me?" His poison gas continued to flow into Vestige.

Vestige finally built in enough strength. He managed to raised is right hand up and curl it into a fist. With the remaining strength, he thrusted it down and slammed his fist at Toxic's face. Toxic lost his focus and the poison gas finally stopped and Vestige was able to breathe in fresh air.

"Jon, look at me." The black material on Vestige's face slowly came off. First the hair was shown, then the forehead. Finally, Davis' face came into view.

"Davis?" Jon looked at him in shock, "Is that really you?"

"You know what I had to go through." Davis said, "You know that I'm just like you." Toxic slowly got to his feet and the two looked at eachother. "You wanted the girl, but you never could. You wanted to be known as a special someone, but it never came. I've been through the exact same thing."

"What do want from me?" Jon asked, "After what I've done, don't you just want to kill me?"

"I do, but despite that, you're still my friend." Davis said, "But as a friend, I need you to know what you've done. You need to understand that you've done horrible things as the monster you've become."

Jon looked down at his body. Davis was right; he's done horrible things. He looked at his smoke hands and stared at them in fear. What has he done?

Above them, the structure began to collapse. The workers that were still there were in panic. Davis and Jon looked up and saw that the structure was coming to fall on them soon.

"Jon. You still have a chance to do some good, despite your past crimes." Davis said, "I need your help to save the workers up there. Can you do that?"

Jon looked up to the top of the site. There weren't that many people up there. He then looked back at Davis, "I'll do my best." Jon rose up to the top and proceeded to do what Davis had instructed.

Davis looked up as Jon prepared himself for at least one heroic deed. He then remembered; Kari. He looked back and saw that she was standing there, surprised.

"Davis?" Kari asked. She couldn't help but smile. All this time, Davis and Vestige were the same. Kari couldn't believe that this was true.

Up above her, Davis noticed that the support beam was loosening on the bolts and began to fall. "KARI!" Davis yelled out.

Kari looked up and saw what Davis was yelling at. In panic she back away, but tripped on a plank of wood and fell. She closed her eyes, but instead of feeling the crushing weight of metal. She felt the brush of a cape on her skin. She looked up and saw that Davis had dived in front of her and held the beam up. His cape expanded into a large wall with support legs. More metal beams continued to fall, but the cape caught them each.

"Hey Kari." Davis smiled, yet straining from the weight.

"Hi." Kari responded.

"This really isn't as fun as you think." Davis strained, "This is heavy as hell."

* * *

Jon flew up to the worker and lent out a hand, "Don't worry, I'm here to save you." 

The worker took the hand and Jon grabbed it. He slowly descended down to the ground and carefully dropped the worker to solid ground and he ran off, leaving the site.

_It feels good to do something right for once._ He thought to himself. He went back up to save the next civilian.

* * *

"Kari...in case the two of us die here...I need to tell you..." Davis strained out the words. The crushing weight of the metal was starting to take its tol on his strength. "I love you." 

"You really mean it?" Kari asked.

"I do." Davis replied, "No more secrets, no more past memories. Its all done with. I really love you."

"Even though you told me that didn't." Kari said, smiling, "You only said that to protect me."

Davis couldn't bring himself to saying anything else. The weight was preventing him from sparing some strength for words.

"I love you too." Kari said.

Those words came to him and almost felt like some form of energy boost. _I'm not gonna let us die here like this!_ He brought in his extra strength and finally pushed all the metal off. The two were finally free. "Get out of here!"

"What about you?" Kari asked.

"I need to save the others!" Davis replied, "Go!"

Kari didn't need to be told twice. The falling debris of metal was all that needed to convince her to start running. Davis looked up and dove off to join Jon in rescuing the others. His mask took form over his face and his cape changed into wings.

"Need a hand?" Vestige asked.

"This guy isn't cooperating with me." Jon replied.

"Sir, you need to let go." Vestige said.

"No!" the man yelled, "I ain't trusting you constumed freaks!"

"Do you wanna die?!" Jon screamed out. As he did, the smoke expanded and gave the man a shock.

"Alright, alright." the man let go of the beam he was holding onto and let Vestige and Jon take him down. The two descended and let the man safely down. He ran off in a hurry, glad to be alive, but scared of being around the two.

"You did it Jon." Vestige said, "You did it."

"Thanks to you Davis." Jon replied, "I don't know what I would've done if it wasn't you."

Their victory was short lived. From up above, a metal pole fell and slammed onto Jon. The force of the fall pushed him down to the ground, leaving him vulnerable.

"Jon!" Vestige ran over to help him up, but before he could reach him, another pole fell, but this time, it stabed him through the back and pierced through. Jon screamed out loudly in pain. "Jon! Come on man, give me your hand." Vestige took out his hand to help him.

"No." Jon said weakly. "This is it for me." Jon didn't take the hand, "I deserve to die here. Its the right thing for me."

Vestige removed his face and Davis looked in shock to see what has happened to Jon.

"I'm..sorry that I...got Kari involved." Jon said, "I'm not gonna say I didn't mean to hurt her. What I did to her, I wanted it to happen that way." Jon slowly breathed. The falling debris continued to land all around them, "Go Davis. Save youself."

"I'm not leaving without you." Davis said, "I can save you."

"NO!" With his last strength, Jon grabbed Davis with a large hand of smoke and threw him. Davis landed past the fence and outside the site.

"Jon!" Davis couldn't do anything. The entire contruction site finally fell and Jon was lost in it. Davis didn't give up. With Vestige's face in front, he flew over to the destroyed site and began to dig into it, searching. Kari could only look from outside as Vestige digged deep. From the distant, police cars and an ambulance came, blaring their sirens as they came.

"Are you alright miss?" One of the officers asked Kari.

"I'm fine." Kari replied.

Vestige continued digging, until he found something that didn't feel like metal. He cleared that small area and saw that that 'thing' he found was an arm. Whatever the arm connected to was still under the wreck, but Vestige knew very well who it belonged to, as well as knowing that the person the arm belonged to was dead. Vestige slowly rose up to his feet. He clenched his fist tightly and in pain, he yelled out furiously.

From the distant, where Kari and the emergency group was, they all turned to the wreck and saw Vestige at the top rasing his head up and yelling.

The yelling echoed through the night. It wasn't the sound from the Dark Jester, for he still had an incomplete agenda. This was the sound of Vestige, but not just him alone. It was sound of painful failure and the loss of a friend.

* * *

**Well, that concludes the life of Jon Kashincho. Sad, I know, but not many villians survive when they repent.**

**As some of you might have already guessed, the part where Toxic rips off Vestige's wings, I took that part off of God of War 2. For those of you who've played it, you know what I'm refering to, for those of you who haven't, find out when you play it. And lo and behold! Kari knows now.**

**The next chapter will start the climatic battle of Saji and Xevin. Wait patiently and remember to review the chapter.**


	16. Duel of Fate

**I understand that some of you were sad that Jon dies. Just so you all know, I didn't want to kill him off, but I couldn't think of any good use for him in later chapters. Besides, we still have Xevin to consider.**

* * *

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Duel of Fate**

It was coming close to midnight. Tai needed to leave. He had everything he needed for this final battle.

"Are you sure you need to do this?" Sora asked.

"Yes." Tai answered. He grabbed his mask and put it on. "I have no other choice." It was now the voice of Saji. He grabbed his four swords and sheathed them into his cape.

The two walked their way to the exit that would lead Tai outside and on his way to the dueling grounds.

"I'll be waiting for you." Sora said.

Saji didn't answer. He simply opened the doorway and walked through, letting the door close behind him. Sora turned and slowly walked her way back upstairs and to Tai's home. All she could do now was hope for the best, and the best for her was to see Tai again.

* * *

Saji wandered around the wreckage of the warehouse. This place was the focal point of many things; the night he was captured by Apocalymon, the location of where Sora was for many nights, and the final battle to determine who earns the right of the title of The Dark Jester. He looked around, Xevin was no where to be seen, but Saji knew not to let his guard down, anything could happen. 

"Well well well, You actually survived my trial." Xevin said. He emerged from the shadows of a large tree, "It seems that I underestimated you."

"This is to end tonight." Saji replied. He reached back for his swords and pulled out two, "I'll make sure of it."

"Then let us dance." Xevin unsheathed his two swords.

Saji moved first by throwing his sword at Xevin. Xevin jumped up and the sword darted under him. Xevin landed just before him and the two clashed off. Xevin swung both his swords as Saji used only one to defend himself. Saji took his one opening and stabbed at Xevin's stomach, bending low to avoid a strike. Xevin quickly moved out of the way of the strike and proceeded to strike down on Saji's unprotected back. Saji was prepared for this, he thrusted his sword behind him and blocked the strike. Saji pushed with this might and Xevin backed away.

"It seems I keep underestimating you." Xevin said calmly.

"Yes, you seem to do that often." Saji replied, "Perhaps that might lead you to your downfall."

Xevin gripped his two swords and charged at Saji. Swinging them both with fury, Saji deflected each strike with his one sword.

* * *

Sora sat on the sofa of Tai's living room. What could she do, she was in no mood to order a pizza, or watch a movie. Her love was out there fighting a battle that could kill him. She simply sat there, waiting for however long she needed to wait. 

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door. She looked up to the door, thinking it was just her imagination, but the door knocked again. She slowly got up and walked to the door. She reached for the knob and opened the door to whoever was on the other side. What she wasn't expecting was the person who was standing there.

"Matt?"

Matt stood there, with a large black coat covering him. His head was covered by a hood, but Sora could clearly see his face through it. All that she could see on him was his face. Everything else was covered by the large coat.

"Where is he?" Matt asked.

* * *

The dueling continued to take place. Saji and Xevin moved around the open wreckage of the area as they swung their swords and blocked the blows. Xevin still held two swords while Saji was still reduced to one. Neither had the oppurtunity to reach out and pull out an additional sword. 

Saji swung his sword overhead, but Xevin blocked the slice by crossing his two swords. Xevin pushed the blade away and kicked Saji in the chest. Saji flew back from the force, but countered it. He shot out a cable from his wrist and yanked on it, shooting him back to where he was. With this as his advantage, he thrusted his legs forward and kicked Xevin back, knocking him to the ground. Saji jumped up and prepared to pin Xevin down with his sword, but Xevin rolled back just before the blade hit the ground. He was back on his feet and the two resumed their original slashing and blocking.

"I will not fall to you!" Saji swng his sword, but Xevin jumped up and away from the slice.

"You have already fallen into darkness." Xevin replied, "I am Darkness. You have already fallen to me to begin with, why bother fighting when there is no hope?"

Saji ran at Xevin. between the two of them, Saji's thrown sword was resting on the dirt, Saji picked it up and continued to run at Xevin, slicing into the dirt with the tips of the blades. "I fight with a meaningful purpose. I fight because I have something to fight for."

Saji sliced with both his blades, but still missed, for Xevin stepped back to avoid the attack. His movement was swift and calm, almost as if he was expecting the attack and wasn't scared of it. "Then tell me, what is it that you fight for?" Xevin asked, "What is it that drives you to fight and losing battle."

"One possessing no heart will never understand." Saji answered. He jumped up and prepared to strike with both his blades, positioning them into a scissor formation, "For a heart is what one needs for the purpose." He landed on the ground, but Xevin jumped up before Saji could land a blow on him.

Xevin used his swords and stabbed onto a large pice of wood that rested next to him. He picked it up and threw it towards Saji. Saji used his swords and sliced through the wood, but once the wood was cut, Xevin was standing right in front of him. Saji then felt the pain of Xevin's foot thrusted at his stomach. Saji fell back from the kick and lost his grip on his swords. To distract Xevin, Saji pulled out his bladed cards and threw them. Xevin blocked each one with his swords and ran at Saji. He reached back to pull out another sword, but Xevin got to him too quickly. Xevin grabbed Saji by the throat as he held his sword up, ready to strike. His grip on Saji's throat made him wheeze out his breath.

"What possible hope did you have against me?" Xevin asked, "I told you, you were fighting a losing battle."

Saji didn't answer him. The pain was too much for him to handle, he couldn't muster enough strength to say anything. Xevin gripped his sword tightly.

"Farewell, Saji." Xevin said darkly, "I shall rule this title."

As he prepared to strike with the killing blow, something came from the shadows and hit his face. Xevin fell back, releasing grip on his sword and on Saji. Saji fell back to the ground, the pain slightly softening with the relaxation, though it was to be short-lived. Xevin rose from the ground, resting on his knees. He looked to see who could have attacked. His mask was now scarred with three large slashed. He ran his fingers on the deep slashes and rose up to his feet in anger.

"Tai!" Sora ran over to Saji's side, bringing his head to rest on her.

"You leave her alone." A voice said. Xevin looked to the direction of the voice. Matt stood there, clad in his demonic body, but with his human face exposed. "That facial improvement was from me."

"How dare you interupt a duel." Xevin said in fury. He ran at Matt, grasping his sword and slashing.

* * *

"Oh my god, Tai." Sora removed the mask of Saji to see Tai's face, "Are you alright?" 

Tai chuckled weakly, "I've been better." He smiled just as weakly. "You shouldn't be here Sora."

"I couldn't stand to be without you." Sora answered. She gently stroked his hair between her fingers.

"You know I'm not going to give up." Tai said. He slowly sat up took the mask in his hands, "I'm going to stay and fight."

"I know." Sora answered, "But this time, I'll be here to cheer you on."

With that, Tai placed the mask back on his face and got on his feet. While Xevin had his attention on Matt, Saji walked over to the two swords he had dropped. He didn't understand why Matt was here, who's side is he on? Is he with Tai, or is he just doing this for himself?

* * *

Xevin sword swung around the air, while Matt blocked each strike with his demon enhanced claws. Each strike was deflected by the sharp nails and Matt remained on the defensive with this. 

"You should not have interfered with my agenda." Xevin huffed out as he still tried to lay a blow on Matt.

As Matt blocked another blow, he tried to lay another slash on Xevin, but that move cost him a great edge. Xevin ducked and the claw swiped over him. In this position, Xevin swung his fist and punched Matt in the chest and thrusted him back. Matt fell on his back and got up, but before he could, Xevin was already standing over him with his sword aimed at Matt's head.

"You harmed my face, now I shall harm yours." Xevin brought his sword up and prepared for a slash, but in front of him, Saji stood, charging at him with two swords preparing to strike. Xevin jumped back to dodge the two blades.

"I believe we left off somewhere." Saji spoke. He took one sword and pointed it to Xevin, "Let's finish this."

The two Jesters clashed off into another battle of blades, each slicing and blocking. Sora watched as Saji and Xevin went on to determine who shall live and who shall die. The two continued to slash at eachother, with no visible way of determining a winner between them.

Xevin went offensive, as he had did throughout most of the duel. Saji was being forced backward to keep defensive and alive. In the corner of his vision, Saji saw a rope hanging from a tree. He quickly hook the rope on his sword and threw it at Xevin. As Xevin threw his arm to slice, his wrist was caught by the rope and stopped in its track. With this oppurtunity, Saji lunged at Xevin, but Xevin kicked him in the chest before an attack was made. With the rope, Xevin, whipped it at Saji, wrapping it around his wrist and binding it in place. With speed, Xevin undid the rope around his own wrist and threw it over a tree that was behind Saji, and pinned the end to the base. Saji's right arm was now unusable for battle, but Xevin didn't stop there. With plenty of rope still left, Xevin used his sword and shot the end around Saji's left wrist and bound it as well.

Saji was now vulnerable and Xevin was diving towards him with a sword ready to pierce him. He was getting closer and Saji's arms were still bound from movement. This was how he shall meet his end; by the blade of his other. But prepared to meet his true end, but instead, he saw something dark stand in his way. He saw that a demon had took in the blow for him. Matt was standing there, with a sword portruding from his chest. 

"No..." Saji looked in shock and horror as Matt standing in front of him with a sword through his chest.

Matt panted heavily as the pain was making breathing difficult for him, the blade was still through his body, but Xevin threw Matt aside, pulling him off the sword.

"Matt!!!"

"A meaningless sacrifice and a minor hindrance." Xevin said monotonely, "Not even he can stop me from killing you."

* * *

Matt landed hard on the dirt ground. The wounds through his chest were still painful and he couldn't get up from the throw. Sora ran to his side and looked at his body. 

"Oh god, Matt."

"I'll be fine..." Matt wheezed out, "You know...I always am."

"Why did you do that?" Sora asked, "You could be dead right now."

"I...had to..." Matt replied, "Tai's my...best...friend. I'd give...my life...for him..."

* * *

Saji strained to break free from the ropes that held his wrists into place. Xevin was still standing there and was ready to attack once more. As he did, Saji decided to try and pull a trick. He jumped up and with his right elbow, he slammed it onto his belt, causing four dice to fall out from the small compartment. As they fell, Saji used his feet and kicked them all back up. With what little movement he had with his right hand, he grabbed onto the four dice. As Xevin got closer and closer, Saji threw two of the dice and they landed right before Xevin, revealing a face of one and two. 

"**_Flash_**."

With those words, the dice exploded into a flash of bright light. Xevin stopped running and fell back from the blinding hindrance. Thanks to Saji's mask, Tai was unaffected by the flash. He used this oppurtunity to use the other two dice. He shook them in his hand and simply opened his hand for the outcome. The dice showed the faces of two and three.

"**_Chill_**."

He quickly tossed the dice up and with control of the rope, he had the dice land on the ropes and with the split second it came in contact with the dice, the ropes instantly froze to solid ice. Not risking the chance of getting the ice to travel to his hand, Saji quickly yanked on the frozen rope and it shattered, freeing his right hand. In one swift motion, he swung around and with his leg, he performed a roundhouse kick at Xevin's head. Saji then pulled out a knife from his belt and sliced the other rope free. He grabbed the the sword that was on the ground, next to him.

Xevin charged at Saji with his sword aimed at him. As he came closer, Saji quickly made his move to counter; he used the sword in hand to hit the blade away and in one swift motion, he fell to his knees and pulled out the knife that was still in his hand. With it, he pierced Xevin's chest. Xevin stood there, motionless. Saji made the killing blow.

"No..." Xevin looked at the knife that was now stabbed into him, "How?"

Saji removed the knife and got up, leaving Xevin to fall. Xevin fell on his back and remained there. Saji quickly ran to where Matt was.

"Matt!" Saji kneeled by his side. He took off his mask and tusked it somewhere into his cape, "Are you alright buddy?"

Matt groaned from the sharp pain, "I'll...manage..." Matt answered. While Matt was on the ground in pain, his demonic body slowly began to change form. His charcoal black skin slowly faded off into a brighter tone. The deep wounds on his body slowly began to get smaller, with the blood flowing back in the cuts. In a matter of time, all his wounds were completely healed and his body back to being his original human self.

"How?" Sora asked, looking at Matt's sudden change, "Where did it go?"

Matt looked at himself, there was no sign of Apocalymon's essence around him, "His energy probably faded into nothing when he had to heal me from all those wounds." Matt looked at the places where he was stabbed and cut and saw no mark of any damage to his skin.

"How did you defeat me?" Xevin asked. He slowly got up onto his knees, still wounded from his defeat. "How did I lose to the likes of you. I'm all powerful." His sights were on Tai. Despite being created out of all of Tai's dark thoughts, he was still defeated by one who had emotional bondages.

"That may be true, but I told you; I have something to fight for that drives me to success." Tai answered, "It is something you will never know."

"Then tell me." Xevin spoke with a weak voice, "What do you fight for?"

"I fight for love." Tai answered, "Love is what I fight for, and love is what kept me going." He put the mask on and the blood red eyes in the shape of crescents looked at the defeated clone. "It's over Xevin, I've won."

"Curse...you...Saji..." Xevin wheezed out, "CURSE YOU!!!" With his final strength, his body became enveloped in a dark abyss. His body slowly faded within it and all that was left was the dark vortex.

The dark portal began to consume everything in its reach. All the loose rocks that were around were sucked into the vortex. Saji was in this reach and he was being pulled in. The force was too strong for him to fight and in a matter of time, the vortex pulled him off his feet. As Saji was being dragged in, he took out his sword and stabbed it into the ground.

"Tai!" Sora ran for Tai.

"No!" Saji pulled out his mask. "Don't come closer!"

"Tai!"

"This isn't the end Sora!" Tai called out, "I'm gonna come back!"

"I love you Tai!" Sora called out.

"I love you too!" Tai's grip on his sword was weakening, but the sword's hold on the ground was weaker. The sword slowly became dislodged from the ground.

"NO!" Sora watched as Tai was getting consumed in the dark abyss.

"Sora!" Tai's voice faded as he went deeper and deeper into the dark abyss, not knowing where it would take him.

The portal then went smaller and smaller, until finally, it was gone. Everything that was being forced into the portal were either gone with it or stopped moving now that it was gone. Sora wason her knees in disbelief, Tai was now gone. Xevin wasn't the only one that disappeared, but Tai too. She brought her hands to her face and cried as much as a heartbroken person could. She had just lost her loved one and for all possibility, she may never see him again.

* * *

**Wow, never realized that I kept this chapter back for so long. Sorry for making you all wait, but hey, its now updated. The end of this story is coming close, but don't get upset, there's still more stories to come.**


	17. Concluded

**Well, that concludes the terror of Xevin, but it also concludes the role of The Dark Jester(or maybe not...) Anyways, here's the aftermath of the fight.**

* * *

**The Dark Jester II  
Vestige of Identity**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Concluded**

People gathered.

They all gathered around a recently prepared funeral.

Friends, family, and friends to the family all gathered around the grave of Jon Kashincho. They were all dressed in black to follow the tradition of a funeral(I'm not too sure how funerals work in Japan, so I'm gonna follow along the American way). Among them was Davis, Kari, TK, Ken, and Yolei. They gathered around the grave with the others as a prayer was made for Jon.

"He still had so much to live for. To die like this was not what he wanted. We can only hope that he may rest in peace."

On the other side of the grave, Davis saw that Karen was also there. Her eyes were filled tears and she looked at the grave of Jon. Davis could sympathize for her mourning, to lose someone close hurts.

The funeral ended shortly afterwards. Everyone who was there gave their respects to him and dropped a flower on his grave. While they passed Jon's burial, they gave their respects to Jon's parents as well, saying how sorry they were for their loss, and hoping that the pain wouldn't last forever. Karen was the only one left. She wanted to be alone with Jon, for one last time. Davis saw that Karen was still there and decided to join her.

"I never got to know you that well." Karen said, talking to Jon as if he was still alive. "I feel so awful for what happened to you." Remembering of what she witnesses at that party, she remembered of what happened to Jon, the humilation by her ex-boyfriend and the sudden drmatic change he made. "I'll always remember you."

"Are you alright?" Davis asked.

Karen looked over and saw Davis was standing behind her. She wiped her tears off her eyes, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Come here." Davis brought Karen in for a hug. She hugged him back and began to cry again. "You sure you're going to be alright?"

"I just need time." Karen said. She slowly turned to look back at the grave. So many things that she could have done with Jon, but now she'll never be able to. "I'm just really going to miss him."

"Yeah, me too." Davis said. He rested a hand on Karen's shoulder, "Come on, everyone else is leaving."

Karen said her final good bye and placed her flower on Jon's grave, which rested with many of the others, though her's was different, for hers was a red rose, while the others were white. The two walked off the hill of where Jon was buried. Karen looked back at Jon's grave for one last time.

"I just hope Jon's in a better place now." Karen said.

"I hope so too." Davis replied. Remembering Jon's final act before dieing. He knew that Jon atoned for his wrong doings. He'll never know what really happens to Jon in the afterlife, but he can only hope that Jon does better there.

As they all left the Jon's grave, a strange activity took place. From beneath the buried ground, a small trial of smoke began to seep out, wrapping itself around the red rose that was just placed on the grave.

* * *

The next day was a Saturady, so not many people were busy, but there were many people wandering around the streets of the city. Amongst them was one specific woman. 

Sora was carrying a small plastic bag that had what appeared to be a small box. She was rushing her way home, not wanting to draw attention for some reason. She was walking faster than any other person that was outside. She made her way to her apartment and locked the door behind her. She went to her bedroom and locked the door to that as well. Her bedroom had a bathroom connected to it and she went in there. She seemed to be very protective of whatever she was doing, for she locked the bathroom door as well. Whatever she was doing, she didn't want anyone to know about it.

_I can't believe I'm doing this._

She took the small box out of the bag and set it on the sink. She opened the box and took out one of the many items that were inside.

* * *

He walked out of the elevator. He looked both directions of the hallway, remembering which way to go to get to _him_. He walked through the left side of the hall and came to a door. He knocked three times and waited for someone to open the door. 

The door opened and the person to answer was Izzy.

"Matt?" Izzy asked. He was indeed surprised to see him, considering the kind of injuries he faced three nights ago. "What do you need?"

"Its about Tai." Matt said.

Matt's been living on for the past year, making choices that he now regrets. Siding with evil many times, going against Tai in many occasions. They were all actions that he wished he could take back. He hoped that what he planned to do now would somehow atone for his past mistakes.

"Did you find him?" Izzy asked.

"Uh...no. I didn't." Matt said. He looked over his shoulders to see if anyone was around, "Listen, could I come in?"

Izzy moved out of the way of the open door and let Matt in. He shut the door behind him and locked it.

"What's wrong Matt?" Izzy asked, "Why are you here, and what's this about Tai?"

"Well, I'm not here because I found him, but it is about the fact that he's gone." Matt said, "Izzy, I need your help."

* * *

Sora was lying on her bed, crying uncontrolably. Whatever just happened in the bathroom had just caused her to go in an emotional breakdown. From the other side of the door, a knock was heard. 

"Sora?" It was her mother, "What's wrong?"

Sora got out of bed and wiped the tears from her eyes. She went to the door and unlocked it and opened up.

"Are you alright Sora?" Her mother asked.

"No mom, I'm not alright." Sora answered. The tears were still in her eyes.

Motherly instincts gave Sora's mother the assumption that whatever the issue was, it was serious.

"Mom, I have something I need to tell you." Sora said.

In the washroom, whatever Sora had brought home in that small plastic bag was on the sink. The box was open and small amounts of the contents were on the floor. There was one that stood out from the rest, it was in the garbage bin. It stood out from the others for it was used by Sora. The small stick was in the trash and it showed a strange color, possibly what made Sora cry.

No, not possibly. It _did_ make her cry.

The test proved it.

Sora was pregnant.

* * *

Davis was lying on his bed, which was by his bedroom window. He stared into the night sky, waiting for a time for Vestige to come. His right hand was running along his belt buckle, just itching for the time to activate it. He then heard the sound of his bedorom door knocking. He sat up and looked over to the door. Jun had opened the door and walked in, with Kari standing behind her. 

"She wanted to see you." Jun said, "She said it was important."

Jun left the room and let Davis and Kari be alone.

"Hi Davis." Kari smiled, as she spoke softly.

"You shouldn't be here, Kari." Davis frowned, "You know why we can't do this."

"I know why you think that Davis." Kari replied, "I understand. Really, I do." Kari closed the door behind her and slowly walked up to Davis. She reached out and held onto his hands, "But can't you respect me enough to let me make my own choices? I'm a big girl Davis."

"But I can't let you be with me." Davis said, he gently released Kari's grip on his hands and slowly backed away. "If something were to happen to you because of me, I couldn't live with myself. If others hurt you to get to me, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for it."

"I know there's gonna be danger for us both, but I don't care about that." Kari said, "I want to face all of them with you. I want to spend my life with you, go through the dangers of the night, and see the next sunrise, and the days after."

Davis was speechless, he didn't know what to say to her now. She really wanted to be with him, no matter the trouble. She reach up and touched his cheek with her soft warm hands.

"Will there ever be a time when the women save the lives of people?" Kari asked, smiling. "Say something Davis, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

Davis could only smile back. "Thank you so much Kari."

The two moved towards eachother and their lips met. Finally, they were together at long last. Davis Motomiya and Kari Kamiya were finally together, like they were always meant to be. Their moment of passion was interrupted when Davis heard the sound of sirens. They broke their kiss and Davis looked through the window. He ran over to the window and saw a horde of police cars driving on the streets to a location.

"Sorry." Davis said, turning to Kari, "But Odaiba needs me."

"Go ahead." Kari smiled, "I'll be waiting for you right here."

Davis smiled at her and rushed back over to her for one last kiss. He turned to head to his window, preparing himself for his night. He opened the window and with one single bound, he jumped out. Kari ran out to the window to see where Davis had just landed, but instead of landing, Vestige flew up into the sky. His cape took form of wings and he flapped them, floating up higher to the sky, as he followed the sirens. This was his calling, it was now on his shoulders to look after the city.

Kari stood at the window that Davis had just jumped out from. She looked on as Davis flew through the night, flapping his wings and soaring to danger.

As long as danger was in the city, she knew Davis would have to leave suddenly to stop it. She knew he would risk his life every night. She knew every night could be their last night.

But she didn't care.

She loved him.

And he was worth the wait.

* * *

Vestige flew through the night sky. The moonlight was shinging down on him as he soared over the streets of the city. His green eyes looked down below.

This city was now his to protect. It was now his responsibility to keep it safe.

The sirens were his guide to where ever the danger was. Squads of police were in front of a large electronics store. Inside, there were several masked men with guns and hostages. Vestige's first act on this situation was to simply fly right into the wall of the building. In doing so, he disappeared in the wall.

"Get the hell away from us, or we blow this place." One of the gunners yelled.

From above them all, a vent was broken and a black figure fell through, landing on his feet. Vestige stood up from the fall and looked at his surroundings.

"Sorry, but the door was blocked." Vestige said.

"Shit, its him." They all took out their guns and aimed it at Vestige.

This was now his life, this was who he was. This was what Davis Motomiya would now do. He was now the protector of Odaiba. Everynight, there may be a calling for a savior, there may be trouble that needs to be solved. All the while, his love, Kari Kamiya, would be safe at home, while he was out to go straight into danger.

With everything that he went through, he waa finally with the girl of his dreams. After many years of pursuing her and never getting any closer, he was finally with her. All those times of hurtful rejections would always be remembered.

But he didn't care.

He loved her.

And she was worth the wait.

* * *

It was dark. Very dark. He was familiar with this type of situation.

Saji slowly got up to his feet and looked around. Everything around him was dark, everything was black and white. There was not one single essence of color. He was standing on a beach where even the water was dark.

He knew very well that he wasn't near home.

Down the shoreline, there was a connected island that had what appeared to be a destroyed building. Considering that this was a beach, that destroyed building must have been a lighthouse. It would have been nice to have a bit of light in this dark world.

Perhaps a little wandering would do well. Saji took his first step on this dark beach. There wasn't really anything different about how this place felt. It had a breeze like any beach, as well as the sound of the waves crashing. As he walked more in the beach, he came across a location where dark puddles of strange substances appeared. These dark spots began to wobble around, until figures began to portrude from them.

"Look, it seems we have a visitor." One of the dark figures spoke.

"Haven't had one for years." Another said.

Their voices were ghastly and villianous, Saji sensed great evil in each of them.

"Not much of a hunt, but a well waited prey." They all surrounded Saji, raising their dark arms up.

Saji reached for his back and unsheathed two swords. He drew them out and waved them gracefully around him. "You shall have to take me down first."

One of the dark creatures lunged at Saji from the back of Saji's right side. He countered by swining his right sword back and spinning it in a circular motion that sliced at the creature, which disappeared into darkness. Another jumped up from up front, but Saji countered this as well. He thrusted his left sword forward and the tip of the blade dug into the creature's head. With the other sword, Saji swung and decapitated the already defeated foe. The two pieces of this creature also disappeared into darkness.

"Well, I know I shall never be bored." Saji said. He looked around and saw that more and more were still coming, rising up from pools of darkness on the sand.

* * *

**(Fanfare)**

**It's finally over!!**

**I want to thank you all for loving my story and reviewing it.**

**Well, not that that's over, there are many other stories to work on. My plan right now is to make a side story of Vestige, which will take place during the time of Saji's absence.**

**In case some of you are worried, here's the answer to all your questions.**

**Yes. Saji will return and in case you haven't figures out yet, Saji is now trapped in the Dark Ocean. And no, Xevin is not alive, he's gone for good.**

**I got a few private messages from people of how they were upset of Jon's death and Karen being alone without him. So to please them, I'll have him return for an unidentified role for the next Dark Jester story. Will he be a good guy? Will he go back to being a villian? That's for you to find out when the time comes.**

**Other than that, the third Dark Jester story will have completely new villians, maybe a total of three or four.**


End file.
